Another Selection from Davenport

". . . how do I know the things I know. . . If she means history and geographical detail, the answer is books, travel and stealing. If she means psychology and the behaviour of people, I make it up. . . . I describe an alternate reality allowed for by nature but not by Janet Reno.
The formula is: an image or idea to go with. Walt and Sam were two very sophisticated French boys at the Brasserie Georges V. It was a lovely late afternoon. . . . I remarked and BJ agreed, that the boys were from Gide--too brainy (they had satchels and books) for De Montherlant, too pure an innocent to be from Proust.
. . . then, back home a year of so later, I made up the rest of it."
Letter to James Laughlin.