The painting was framed in a misty view of sky, sea, and valley. Newt's painting was small, black, and warty. It consisted of scratches made in a black, gummy impasto. The scratches formed a sort of spider's web, and I wondered if they might not be the sticky nets of human futility hung up on a moonless night to dry.

Having a yacht is a reason for being more cheerful than most.

And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like "Poo-tee-weet?

What Franklin Roosevelt did, which really offended them, was he strengthened the labor unions - made it possible for them to strike. The oligarchs were furious because the working class was not supposed to have any power at all.

It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life.

My ancestors came over from Germany about the time of the Civil War and one of them lost a leg and went back to Germany.

If a person survives an ordinary span of sixty years or more, there is every chance that his or her life as a shapely story has ended and all that remains to be experienced is epilogue. Life is not over, but the story is.