Saul Bellow

Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door. (from Mr. Sammler's Planet - Viking Penguin) - Saul Bellow

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting -- the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near. - Saul Bellow