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

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

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

Fun is not the same thing as fulfillment.

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

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.

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