"Then in 1987 I read this, which tells the story of Johnson’s affair with Kerouac, and gives a behind the scenes true story of the Beat generation, and more specifically, the women involved with them who are the “minor characters” of the title. I immediately saw what I had missed at the time, and this book continued my feminist education. "

"My friend Audrey Gelman showed me this film as the beginning of my political education. While it is a documentary that provides a ton of backstory on the Clinton campaign and the art and science of electing a president, it has the pace and power of a good thriller produced by George Clooney with David Strathairn in at least one role with gravitas."

"Read this memoir for a glimpse of a vanished country (ours, circa 1940s/1950s/1960s) that had an entirely different notion of education and the arts, i.e., a country that valued them and honored them and supported them with money and muscular institutions, which institutions, in turn, produced courageous and original national artists like Glass – who is also, turns out, a wonderfully gifted, honest, and amiable writer."