I picked such seemingly disparate essays, I thought it was important to say what was the guiding principle in the selection rather than focus on any one essay. I reached for some principle that had been subconscious in me and lifted it into consciousness. Authenticity and sincerity were the most important unifying principles of all these apparently different essays.
Alan LightmanWriters are a loosely knit community - community is an overstated word. Writers don't see each other very much.
Alan LightmanI have a number of vague ideas where I just have the core or kernel of the idea. I feel like I need some time for my mind to fill up again. I feel empty. Right now.
Alan LightmanEvery reader gets something different from a book and every reader, in a sense, completes it in a different way.
Alan LightmanFor my students who are trying to learn the craft of writing in a writing class - contemporary literature is what's most useful.
Alan LightmanIn a world without future, each parting of friends is a death. In a world without future, each loneliness is final. In a world without future, each laugh is the last laugh. In a world without future, beyond the present lies nothingness, and people cling to the present as if hanging from a cliff.
Alan Lightman