My Friend Ronald Gottesman Says...that The Cause

I Read Everywhere. It's Like A Bodily Function. I Don't Need Quiet. I Write And Read With The Tv On. I Follow The Tv Show While I Read. Tv Doesn't Require A Lot Of Brainpower.

Elvis, Stop Dat! You Know It Is Taboo To Whistle At Night. You Will Attract A Spirit.

The Internet Is Really Our Meeting Place. We Have This Amazing Listserv. Every Time I Log Onto It I Feel A Sense Of Pride, Because If You Log On And Say, "oh I Was Just In San Diego And I Was In A Park And I Saw A Lion," The Flurry Of Replies On Average Is Just Like--wow! All These Existential Questions About What It Means To Be An African, And Never Having Seen A Lion At Home, But Having Seen A Lion Here. Everything You Say Turns Into This Real Philosophical Debate--it's Incredible In So Many Ways. And It's An Invigorating Place To Be.

The Truth Is That History, With Its Imposing Capital H, Is Simply The Amalgamation Of Many Quotidian Lives Lived In Very Ordinary Ways. History Is Always Personal. If You Read Holocaust Survivor Or American Slavery Survivor Narratives, You Realize All Too Well That These Great Historical Moments Were Personal To Someone At Some Time.

Fiction Is More Dangerous Than Nonfiction Because It Can Seduce Better. I Think We All Know This, Know That Deeper Truths Can Be Approached In Fiction Than In Fact. There Are Risks For The Reader, Because After Reading Certain Books You Find You Have Changed Irreversibly. There Are Risks For Writers: In China, Now, And Ethiopia And Other Countries Right Now, Writers Face Real Persecution.