There is such a thing as the poetry of a mistake, and when you say, "Mistakes were made," you deprive an action of its poetry, and you sound like a weasel.
Charles BaxterWhen I'm writing, I'm waiting to see somebody, and I'm waiting to hear them. It's almost like conjuring spirits out of the air, using your own imaginative instability.
Charles BaxterThe problem with love and God, the two of them, is how to say anything about them that doesnโt annihilate them instantly with the wrong words, with untruth. . . . In this sense, love and God are equivalents. We feel both, but because we cannot speak clearly about them, we end upโwordless, inarticulateโby denying their existence altogether, and, pfffffft, they die.
Charles Baxter