Lipton’s Journal/January 20, 1955/206

If I have qualities of genius, it is because in my case I have never found a home. I straddle many coteries and can never truly join any, yet I have a sensitivity and knowledge for each in myself. But that is why so many people see me as being tortured and nervous and obviously anxious. I have no home, no roots—I am indeed the orphan hero of Barbary Shore and The Deer Park—and so all my anxiety is evident whereas it is buried in other people. And that is why Adele and I were drawn together—for she is an orphan as much as I am.