These self-appointed deacons in the Church of Latter-Day American Literature seem to regard generosity (of words) with suspicion, texture with dislike, and any broad literary stroke with outright hate. The result is a strange and arid literary climate where a meaningless little fingernail paring like Nicholson Baker's Vox becomes an object of fascinated debate and dissection, and a truly ambitious American novel like Matthew's Heart of the Country is all but ignored.

And in the gunslinger's mind, those words echoed: You dare not.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Of course they had more chains on him than Scrooge saw on Marley's ghost, but he could have kicked up dickens if he'd wanted. That's a pun, son.

Passing time adds false memories and modifies real ones.

You want to remember that while you're judging the book, the book is also judging you.

Time continued to pass - the oldest trick in the world, and maybe the only one that really is magic.