Whenever People Say They Didn't Like The

I Tried To Avoid Mimi. Her Presence Seemed To Call Forth Every Rejection I'd Ever Experienced-the Teachers Who'd Looked At Me As Though I Held No Promise, The Boys Who Didn't Like Me Back. Around Her, I Became Fourteen Again.

The Writing Is Clean. I Really Wouldn't Have Changed A Word. Most Of It Is True, Too, Except That The Hero Quits Drinking And The Girl Grows Up. On The Last Page, The Couple Gets Married, Which Is A Nice Way For A Love Story To End.

I Realize I Will Never Hear From Dena Again, And I Will Never Call Her. It Gives Me A Chill. It Is A Strange Thing To End A Friendship, Even If You Know It's What You Want. It's Like A Death; All Of A Sudden Your Experience Of A Person Become Finite.

With So Much Sky And So Much River, You Couldn't Help Seeing The Big Picture. It Was What You Already Knew, But Crowding Into The Subway Or Rushing To A Movie, You Only Saw It For A Second, And Close Up. Now I Took A Good Long Look. I'd Always Heard You Couldn't See Stars In Manhattan Because Of All The Lights. But Here They All Were. Here Was My Night In Shining Armor.

I Don't Have Any Real Goals Except To Follow One Good Sentence With Another... I'm Not The Kind Of Writer Who Has A Map.