“In other words Yates had remembered the lesson of his first great master, Fitzgerald—namely, that people rarely say what they mean, and good dialogue is a matter of catching one’s characters “in the very act of giving themselves away.” — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“Fitzgerald's work was almost entirely out of print when 'The Lost Weekend' was published in 1944—even 'Gatsby' seemed well on its way to being… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
I myself am consummately middle class. We grew up in upper-middle-class suburbs in Oklahoma City, and thats very much the same ethos as what… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
The funniest novel you've never read. . . . Afternoon Men is a revelation to sophisticated readers of every stripe, but especially to a… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
I'm a huge fan of 'The Lost Weekend.' I have this dog-eared copy of the 1963 Time Reading Program edition, which was a series… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“Largely to spare his feelings, she’d spoken in rather vague terms about wanting to “find herself,” and Yates concluded that she’d become a “womens’-libbing… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“Repeatedly Yates went berserk—raging over grievances old and new, hurling furniture at phantoms out of his past. The nurses who lived upstairs complained about… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
My father was a golden boy from a very small town. He won a very prestigious law scholarship to NYU Law School, and there… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“As Monica Yates pointed out, “Dad didn’t notice other people. He picked up on asshole people, he could figure people out in general, but… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“ The Lost Weekend was the only book, out of five books, that I wrote sober, without stimulus or sedative.” — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
I keep three framed photographs on my desk: the latest school picture of my daughter; a photo of my wife getting her diploma from… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“But what ultimately made Yates the scourge of copy editors was his simple aversion to criticism; any emendation in his manuscript, be it a… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“One of the more curious paradoxes of Yates’s nature was his almost archaic courtliness toward women on the one hand, and his lifelong tendency… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
“Not only had Yates continued to grow as a writer in terms of craft, but also philosophically, salvaging from the ruins of his life… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
I'm not an academic; I'm just a bookish Joe who gets passionate about certain writers and suddenly wants to read everything they've ever written… — Blake Bailey Copy Share Image
