Things Could Be Worse And Things Could

A Child, Thought Carl, Is Not The Only Result Of Childbirth. A Mother, Too, Is Born. You See Them Every Day--nondescript Women With A Bulge Just Above The Groin, Slightly Double-chinned. Perpetually Forty. Someone's Mother, You Think. There Is A Child Somewhere Who Has Made This Woman Into A Mother, And For The Sake Of The Child She Has Altered Her Appearance To Better Play The Part.

Being Serious Is Serious Business In Fiction. It's Commercial Or Hoi Polloi In Fiction To Be Funny. It's Too Accessible To The Great Unwashed.

Without Work, So Much Of One's Identity Just Evaporates.

If You Can Get By With Quotes From The Godfather And Nothing You Say Matters, That's Pretty Bleak, Don't You Think? Don't We Want What We Say To Matter?

We Told Him To Get On With It. We Liked Wasting Time, But Almost Nothing Was More Annoying Than Having Our Wasted Time Wasted On Something Not Worth Wasting It On.