I think throughout the 20th century, for some reason, serious writers increasingly had contempt for the average reader. You can really see this in the letters of such people as Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

Ragtime was a fanfare for the 20th century.

In the 20th century, imprisonment of writers practically comes with the territory.

I think that if you are a serious writer, you are almost obligated to provide the intelligent average reader with something that they can relate to and care about. If you are writing only for a tiny elite, then that surely should sound alarm bells.

Sex is the ersatz or substitute religion of the 20th Century.

I live in the 20th century. I have copper rivets on my jeans.