Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer-so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible.

A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to.

To create anything — whether a short story or a magazine profile or a film or a sitcom — is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic. These essays are about that magic — which is sometimes perilous, sometimes infectious, sometimes fragile, sometimes failed, sometimes infuriating, sometimes triumphant, and sometimes tragic. I went up there. I wrote. I tried to see.

Fun is not the same thing as fulfillment.

An artist can respect the backfield of fact before which every human being stands and choose not to address those facts.

We are no longer worried that children are missing school because of video games, though. We are worried that they are murdering their classmates because of video games.

Most non-readers are nothing but an agglomeration of third-hand opinion and blindly received wisdom.