"That Little Sob in the Spine"

He says he got the inspiration for Humbert Humbert when he heard a story about a baboon that knew how to draw the bars of its former cage. Prodded by Lionel Trilling, he says "I don't wish to 'touch hearts'...I don't even want to affect minds much; what I want to produce is that little sob in the spine of the artist-reader..." His body language is really uptight here, the way he keeps his knees pursed together and he makes some of the classic moves that bad liars make...

I came by this via the wonderful online digest Berfrois.