Most movies are not very good. Most people know it and like to see them anyway.

My grandmother refused to concede that any member of the family died of natural causes. An uncle's cancer in middle age occurred because all the suitcases fell off the luggage rack onto him when he was in his teens, and so forth. Death was an acquired characteristic.

Did I throw the most important thing perhaps, by accident, away?

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.

Nice criticism is good when it tells you something. A lot of negative "criticism" isn't criticism at all: it's just nasty, "writerly" cliché and invective.

There follows a little obscenity here, a dash of philosophy there, considerable whining overall, and a modern satirical novel is born.