Lord, Why Did You Leave Me In

Wherever There's Capitalism There's This Inclination Toward Simplicity. There's Also A Human Need To Process Complicated Things By Turning Them Into Something Else.

Every Writer Owes Something To A Particular Tradition He/she Grew Up In. But No Serious Writer - Other Than The Militantly Nationalist Ones - Would Reduce His/her Domain Of Influence To A Single Tradition. Furthermore, Historical Breaks Are So Common And Large In Europe That There Are Ruptures In Every Tradition Which Then Connect The Same Generations Across National Borders. Younger Eastern European Writers, For Instance, Have More In Common With Other Writers Of The Same Age In Europe, Than With The Previous, Communist-era Generations In Their Own Countries.

Despite All That I Know Rationally, And Everything That I Can Put Into Words, I Can Say That I Have Difficulty Giving Up The Notion Of The Nobility Of Art.

I Had An Epiphany: I Was A Loser.

I Write And Read With The Assumption That Literature Contains Knowledge Of Human Experience That Is Not Available Otherwise.