the time for prizes and competitions at art festivals is over. Competition is too closely tied to values that are alien to the arts.

In the strange heat all litigation brings to bear on things, the very process of litigation fosters the most profound misunderstandings in the world.

Do you realize how angry you sound?” must be one of the most infuriating questions in the language.

The writer has a grudge against society, which he documents with accounts of unsatisfying sex, unrealized ambition, unmitigated loneliness, and a sense of local and global distress.

A favorite strategy was the paragraph-terminating: Right? Followed immediately by Wrong. This linear invitation to a mugging was considered a strategy of wit.

The style of flirtation specific to classrooms was of service to the students all their lives.

Writing about writing is a bit like talking about a conversation you are having; it tends to obscure desperation about where the next word is coming from.