In his tales, violence is measured by brotherhood, passionate hate by passionate love. And in the end it is man who, despite his weaknesses and his blindness, has the right to victory.

I’ve often thought what a wonderful basketball team could be formed from Petrakis characters. Everyone of them is at least fourteen feet tall.

Harry Mark Petrakis is good news in American literature.

I’ve always thought Harry Mark Petrakis to be a leading American novelist.

Joy. A strange word when you think of contemporary fiction… or contemporary poetry, or contemporary anything. I am tempted to say that Petrakis is unique in our time because in his stories he can produce it, and he does regularly. It is as if some wonderful secret had been lost, then rediscovered by him.

Petrakis has something more important than skill; a deep and rich humanity.