One Must Not Be Shy Where Language

Hope Is A Horrible Thing, You Know. I Don't Know Who Decided To Package Hope As A Virtue Because It's Not. It's A Plague. Hope Is Like Walking Around With A Fishhook In Your Mouth And Somebody Just Keeps Pulling It And Pulling It.

I Think That People All Grow Up And Have Their Same Personalities, But You Can Say, "oh, I Can See The Roots Of This Personality, Which I Didn't Like, But Then You Grew Up, And I Can Still See You As That Person, But I Do Really Like You Now." Which Is Sort Of How I Feel About Children - I Mean, About Children Who I Knew When I Was A Child And Grew Up With, And They're Still My Friends, And Children That I Know As Children Who I See Growing Up, And Every Year I Like Them More.

Updike And Bellow And Roth Were My Three Favorite Writers When I Was Young And Throughout My Life.

Coming Back Is The Thing That Enables You To See How All The Dots In Your Life Are Connected, How One Decision Leads You Another, How One Twist Of Fate, Good Or Bad, Brings You To A Door That Later Takes You To Another Door, Which Aided By Several Detours--long Hallways And Unforeseen Stairwells--eventually Puts You In The Place You Are Now.

Do You Want To Do This Thing? Sit Down And Do It. Are You Not Writing? Keep Sitting There. Does It Not Feel Right? Keep Sitting There. Think Of Yourself As A Monk Walking The Path To Enlightenment. Think Of Yourself As A High School Senior Wanting To Be A Neurosurgeon. Is It Possible? Yes. Is There Some Shortcut? Not One I've Found. Writing Is A Miserable, Awful Business. Stay With It. It Is Better Than Anything In The World.