Schadenfreude Is So Nutritious.

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.

This Is The Paradox For Me: In Failure Alone Is There Any Possibility Of Success. I Don't Think I'm Alone In This - Nor Do I Think It's An Attitude That Only Prevails Among People Whose Work Is Obviously "creative".

From Time To Time, As If Heaven-sent To Annoy, Someone Will Ask Me If I'm Self-disciplined When It Comes To My Work. I Usually Look Witheringly At Them And Snarl, 'what Do You Think?' I Mean, How Do You Imagine Anyone Writes A Quarter Of A Million Words A Year For Publication?

Continuous Present Is All We Have, And Stream Of Consciousness - Which In A Novel Is Arguably Just As Artificial As The Stilted Dialogue That You Get In Most Conventional Novels. They're All Stratagems To Try To Get Closer To The Texture Of Lived Life.

If We Bought Everything On The Internet, Our Eyes And Mouths And Nostrils Would Probably Begin To Film Over With A Tegument - One Initially Tissue-thin And Capable Of Being Removed Each Morning, But Which Gradually Thickened And Hardened Until We Were Imprisoned In Our Own Tiny Minds.