History - An Account, Mostly False, Of

Like An Ox-cart Driver In Monsoon Season Or The Skipper Of A Grounded Ship, One Must Sometimes Go Forward By Going Back.

Every Artist Joins A Conversation That's Been Going On For Generations, Even Millennia, Before He Or She Joins The Scene.

One Of The Things I Miss About Teaching Is That Students Would Tell Me What I Ought To Read. One Of My Students, Back In The 1960s, Put Me Onto Borges, And I Remember Another Mentioning Flann O'brien's At Swim Two-birds In The Same Way.

My Dear Fellow,' Burlingame Said, 'we Sit Here On A Blind Rock Careening Through Space; We Are All Of Us Rushing Headlong To The Grave. Think You The Worms Will Care, When Anon They Make A Meal Of You, Whether You Spent Your Moment Sighing Wigless In Your Chamber, Or Sacked The Golden Towns Of Montezuma? Lookee, The Day's Nigh Spent; 'tis Gone Careening Into Time Forever. Not A Tale's Length Past We Lined Our Bowels With Dinner, And Already They Growl For More. We Are Dying Men, Ebenezer: I'faith, There's Time For Naught But Bold Resolves!

It Is Often Pleasant To Stone A Martyr, No Matter How Much We May Admire Him.