Getting Even Is One Reason For Writing.

Some People Say Their Life Is Full Of Darkness And I Wonder Why They Don't Just Try And Switch The Lights On.

I Do Have A Very Conscious Desire Not To Be Academic. I'm Antiacademic. I Hate Jargon. I Hate That Sort Of Pretension. I Am A Person Who [commits] Breaches Of Decorum - Not In Private Life, But In My Work. They Are Part Of My Mode Of Operation. That Kind Of Playfulness Is Part Of My Nature In General. The Paradox That, In A Way, To Take Something Very Seriously, You Can't Always Be Serious About It.

If Death Itself Were To Die, Would It Have A Ghost, And Would The Ghost Of Death Visit The Dead In The Guise Of Someone Alive, If Only To Fright Them From Any Temptation To Return?

Surely It's Better To Live In The Country, To Live On A Prairie By A Drawing Of Rivers, In Iowa Or Illinois Or Indiana, Say, Than In Any City, In Any Stinking Fog Of Human Beings, In Any Blooming Orchard Of Machines. It Ought To Be.

As Rilke Observed, Love Requires A Progressive Shortening Of The Senses: I Can See You For Miles; I Can Hear You For Blocks, I Can Smell You, Maybe, For A Few Feet, But I Can Only Touch On Contact, Taste As I Devour