That's my only defense against this world: to build a sentence out of it.

When we were children we were errant enough to wish to be birds for the day but there's nothing easier to lose than playfulness.

The wife picked out ceramic tile for floor covering, not realizing that cost was determined by square foot, not square yard like carpet. Thinking the price was plenty reasonable, she had an extra room of tile ordered for installation. When the bill arrived, it was staggering. She and her husband began a fight that continued all through the construction job. They ended up divorced, but not until she had broken every window.

Fate has never ladled out hardship very evenly, and this frequently trips our often infantile sense of justice.

I wonder, when a writer's blocked and doesn't have any resources to pull himself out of it, why doesn't he jump in his car and drive around the U.S.A.? I went last winter for seven thousand miles and it was lovely. Inexpensive, too.

I should add that I very much enjoy certain cities especially Paris, New York and Chicago.

The fact is, the media never gets off the interstate unless there's a major explosion.