I Prefer To Write First Drafts As

Because I Was A Young Man So, Of Course, I Did Get Into Fights. The Last Time I Actually Was In A Fight, In The Sense Of Throwing Punches Myself, Was Probably When I Was At College, Not Since 1980. But I Remember Being Attacked Quite A Few Times In The '80s.

When Anyone Starts Out To Do Something Creative - Especially If It Seems A Little Unusual - They Seek Approval, Often From Those Least Inclined To Give It. But A Creative Life Cannot Be Sustained By Approval, Any More Than It Can Be Destroyed By Criticism - You Learn This As You Go On.

Just As The Blurring Between Childhood And Adulthood Has Produced The Kidult, So The Stretching Of Middle Into Old Age Has Fostered Another Peculiar Chimera: Septuagenarians With Apoptosis Sporting The Depeche Mode.

That Tertiary Education Is Under A Sustained Assault By A Political And - It Often Seems - Social Consensus That Equates All Education With Training For Increased Productivity, Only Makes Academe A Still More Promising Environment For A Contrarian.

Lives Don't Divide Up Into Chapters. People Don't Just Talk, While Nothing's Going On In Their Head, And Then Respond. You Know, None Of These Things Actually Happen.