I AM BOTH A PRISONER AND AN ADDICT

"I think of the enormous contribution Verdi made to the life of the planet and the enormous cooperation he was given by by orchestras and singers...And I think of what an enormous opportunity it is to be alive on this planet. Having myself been cold and hungry and terribly alone I think I still feel the excitement of that opportunity. The sense of being with some sleeping person - one's child or one's lover-and seeming to taste the privilege of living, of being alive. "

"Since I know so much about incarceration and addiction why can't I write about it? All I seem to be able to do is howl; let me out...I am both a prisoner and and an addict."

"I find myself greatly fatigued. I am pleased to make coffee in the kitchen and chat with the old dog. I am Better Davis and the old dog is Geraldine Fitzgerald in the last scenes of "Dark Victory." Now we have to learn to live again, 'says the old dog. And I say 'If I can laugh I can live."

-From the journals of John Cheever
NEWSWEEK/OCTOBER 22, 1984