"Getting even is one great reason for writing. The precise statement of the motive is tricky, but the clearest express…"

"So she drank to the point of suicide, because a life which not only lacked love, but couldn't even catch a little ind…"

"Great undulating banners red as blood. And the brass bands. And the manly thud of uniformly set-down boots. And the r…"

"But if you want to think about something really funny, consider how the titles of tyrants change. We shall suffer no …"

"O, Koh, the limerick is the unrefiner's fire. It is as false and lifeless, as anonymous, as a rubber snake, a Dixie c…"

"So city a man he seldom freed his feet to feel the country."

"I wonder how many men and women, kids and dogs, go through life in a state of modest misery; how much communal coldne…"

"My illness is alive, the threats to my life are real; yet it is only my death I feel, only the lessening made by my o…"

"If the study of history is the study of language in one form or another, and if we really fabricate our past, not mer…"

"I am actively drawn to essays, and am right now immersed in “Life Sentences,” a 2012 collection by William Gass (our …"