I'm Delighted By How Nobody's Fool Turned

The World Is Divided Between Kids Who Grow Up Wanting To Be Their Parents And Those Like Us, Who Grow Up Wanting To Be Anything But. Neither Group Ever Succeeds.

A Couple Years Ago, The Novelist Russell Banks Told Me He Was Reading The Ancient Greek Historian Herodotus. I Asked Why. He Said, 'because I've Always Wanted To And Am Tired Of Having My Reading Assigned.' I Thought It Was A Marvelous Declaration Of Independence.

One Of The Odd Things About Middle Age, He Concluded, Was The Strange Decisions A Man Discovers He's Made By Not Really Making Them, Like Allowing Friends To Drift Away Through Simple Neglect.

Where Was The Middle Ground Between A Sense Of Adventure And Just Plain Sense?

I Suppose All Writers Worry About The Well Running Dry.