He Was Born A Politician. No, Ursula

Patricia Embraces Me On The Station Platform. 'the Past Is What You Leave Behind In Life, Ruby,' She Says With The Smile Of A Reincarnated Lama. 'nonsense, Patricia,' I Tell Her As I Climb On Board My Train. 'the Past's What You Take With You.

Julia's Vocabulary Was "chock-full" Of Strangely Archaic Words - "spiffing," "crumbs," "jeepers" - That Seemed To Have Originated In Some Prewar Girls' Annual Rather Than In Julia's Own Life. For Jackson, Words Were Functional, They Helped You Get To Places And Explain Things. For Julia, They Were Freighted With Inexplicable Emotion.

Because I Write Fiction, I Don't Write Autobiography, And To Me They Are Very Different Things. The First-person Narrative Is A Very Intimate Thing, But You Are Not Addressing Other People As 'i' - You Are Inhabiting That 'i.'

If People Believed In Eternal Damnation They Might Not Be Seizing The Day Quite So Much.

I Spent Four Years Doing A Doctorate In Postmodern American Literature. I Can Recognize It When I See It.