Why is it he feels some line has been crossed, some boundary transgressed? How much is too much, how far is too far?

Don't wait until you're 'in the mood.' Get into the mood by writing.

Starlet sex scandal. Giant squid involved.

Some days I do appreciate things more, eggs, flowers, but then I decide I'm only having an attack of sentimentality, my brain going pastel Technicolor, like a beautiful-sunset greeting cards they used to make so many of in California. High-gloss hearts. The danger is grayout.

The future of narrative? Built in, part of the human template. Not going away.

You quickly find, when you are a hand-reader as I am, that nothing interests people so much as themselves.

My father was a forest entomologist, which means he was aware that spraying forests for spruce budworm was counterproductive in that it didn't really work, and it killed everything else in the forests, and it wasn't good for the people who were exposed to it, either. So he was an early proponent of not doing that, but, of course, nobody listened.