In Short, It Became Possible - Never

I Was In Venice Teaching, So I Reread Henry James's "the Wings Of The Dove." I Love James.

When I Was Quite Young I Came Across A Collection Of [franz] Kafka Stories And Read "the Judgment." I Was Just Floored By That Story. I Couldn't Understand It. I Still Don't. I'm Talking About Something I Read More Than 50 Years Ago. That Story Left A Little Scar On Me.

A Couple Of Years Ago I Picked Up New Yorker Writer Alma Guillermoprieto's "the Heart That Bleeds," Which Is Reportage From Latin America In The 1990s. You Can Predict That Some Books Will Give You A Thrill, But You Can't Predict The Books That Will Hit You Hard. It Is A Little Bit Like Falling In Love.

I Believe In Broken, Fractured, Complicated Narratives, But I Believe In Narratives As A Vehicle For Truth, Not Simply As A Form Of Entertainment, Though I Love Entertainment, But Also A Way Of Conveying What Needs To Be Conveyed About The Works That I Care About.

What We Know Is That Shakespeare Wrote Perhaps The Most Remarkable Body Of Passionate Love Poetry In The English Language To A Young Man.