When You Have Too Much Faith In

All At Once It Hit Him: This Was Power Too, Just As Surely As Smashing Your Fist Into Someone’s Face, Just As Surely As Putting A Hammer Through Someone’s Skull. The Power To Make Another Person Crazy With Pleasure Instead Of Fear And Pain, To Have Every Cell In Another Person’s Body At Your Thrall.

It Was Like Discovering That Your Innermost Fires And Terrors, The Things You Believed No One Else Could Fathom, Were In Fact The Basis Of A Recognized Philosophy. Some Part Of You Felt Intimately Invaded, Threatened; Some Other Part Fell To Its Knees And Sobbed In Gratitude That It Was No Longer Alone.

My Childhood May Have Been More Demented Than Most, Because I Learned To Read Very Early And Was Allowed To Read Whatever I Wanted.

I Certainly Wanted To Write A Book That Was Honest About New Orleans Without Explaining It To Death, So Much So That The First Draft Contained References Absolutely Incomprehensible To Anyone Who Hasn't Lived Here For Several Years.

If You're A Freelance Writer And Aren't Used To Being Ignored, Neglected, And Generally Given Short Shrift, You Must Not Have Been In The Business Very Long.