Surely It Is A Sin To Reject

She Wondered If Literature Might Lose Some Of Its Interest When She Reached An Age Or State Of Mind Where Her Life Was Set On Such A Sure Course That The Things She Read Might Stop Seeming So Powerfully Like Alternate Directions For Her Being.

One Time At The University Of Colorado, At A Faculty Dinner, This Professor Said To Me, 'well, My Goodness, A Boy From Appa-lay-chee-a With A Ph.d!' The Dinner Was In Her House. And I Said, 'my Grandparents Didn't Have Indoor Plumbing, But They Had More Books In Their House Than You Do.' I Was A Little Insulted By The Appa-lay-chee-a Business.

I've Always Thought Harper Lee Might Have Made A Great Decision. Much As You'd Like To Have More Books By Her, There's Something About Just One That's Kind Of Mysterious And Nice. On The Other Hand, The New York Gossip About Me Was That I'd Never Write Another Book. So I Thought, 'well, I Will Then.

That's Just Pain She Said. It Goes Eventually. And When It's Gone, There's No Lasting Memory. Not The Worst Of It Anyway. It Fades. Our Minds Aren't Made To Hold On To The Particulars Of Pain The Way We Do Bliss. It's A Gift God Gives Us, A Sign Of His Care For Us.

And Then She Thought That You Went On Living One Day After Another, And In Time You Were Somebody Else, Your Previous Self Only Like A Close Relative, A Sister Or Brother, With Whom You Shared A Past. But A Different Person, A Separate Life. Certainly Neither She Nor Inman Were The People They Had Been The Last Time They Were Together. And She Believed Maybe She Liked Them Both Better Now.