Yet Everyone Begins In The Same Place;

Printed Prose Is Historically A Most Peculiar, Almost An Aberrant Way Of Telling Stories, And By Far The Most Inherently Anesthetic: It Is The Only Medium Of Art I Can Think Of Which Appeals Directly To None Of Our Five Senses. The Oral And Folk Tradition In Narrative Made Use Of Verse Or Live-voice Dynamics, Embellished By Gesture And Expression--a Kind Of Rudimentary Theater--as Do The Best Raconteurs Of All Times. Commonly There Was Musical Accompaniment As Well: A Kind Of One-man Theater-of-mixed-means.

A Curious Thing About Written Literature: It Is About Four Thousand Years Old, But We Have No Way Of Knowing Whether Four Thousand Years Constitutes Senility Or The Maiden Blush Of Youth.

All Men Are Loyal, But Their Objects Of Allegiance Are At Best Approximate.

If You Are A Novelist Of A Certain Type Of Termperament, Then What You Really Want To Do Is Re-invent The World. God Wasn't Too Bad A Novelist Except He Was A Realist.

History - An Account, Mostly False, Of Events, Mostly Unimportant