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

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

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

When I play too many video games I begin to feel chubby-minded, caffeinated, bad.

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.

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

Reading gives one something to think about other than one's self.