I Think Most Serious Writers, Certainly In

Literature Presents You With Alternate Mappings Of The Human Experience. You See That The Experiences Of Other People And Other Cultures Are As Rich, Coherent, And Troubled As Your Own Experiences. They Are As Beset With Suffering As Yours. Literature Is A Kind Of Legitimate Voyeurism Through The Keyhole Of Language Where You Really Come To Know Other People's Lives--their Anguish, Their Loves, Their Passions. Often You Discover That Once You Dive Into Those Lives And Get Below The Surface, The Veneer, There Is A Real Closeness.

All Of Us Grow Up In Particular Realities - A Home, Family, A Clan, A Small Town, A Neighborhood. Depending Upon How We're Brought Up, We Are Either Deeply Aware Of The Particular Reading Of Reality Into Which We Are Born, Or We Are Peripherally Aware Of It.

Truth Has To Be Given In Riddles. People Can't Take Truth If It Comes Charging At Them Like A Bull. The Bull Is Always Killed. You Have To Give People The Truth In A Riddle, Hide It So They Go Looking For It And Find It Piece By Piece; That Way They Learn To Live With It.

Two People Who Are True Friends Are Like Two Bodies With One Soul

I Went Away And Cried To The Master Of The Universe, "what Have You Done To Me? A Mind Like This I Need For A Son? A Heart I Need For A Son, A Soul I Need For A Son, Compassion I Want From My Son, Righteousness, Mercy, Strength To Suffer And Carry Pain, That I Want From My Son, Not A Mind Without A Soul!"