I'd rather sit down and write a letter than call someone up. I hate the telephone.

The remark contrasts two modes of communication: the deliberate, solitary act of letter-writing versus the immediacy and intrusion of a phone call. It suggests a preference for reflection, control over one’s voice, and the ability to shape thought on the page—values closely associated with a writer’s craft. The telephone, by contrast, forces real-time performance and social availability, collapsing distance and privacy. Read this way, the quote expresses not just a personal quirk but a stance on modernity: suspicion of technologies that accelerate contact while reducing depth, and a desire to preserve the contemplative space in which writing—and perhaps genuine intimacy—can occur.