One Thing's Sure And Nothing Surer. The

It’s Ever Been The Way Of The Man Of Science Or Philosophy. Most Folks Stay In The Dark And Then Complain They Can’t See Nothing.” – Snipes (185)

I Think Writing A Poem Is Like Being A Greyhound. Writing A Novel Is Like Being A Mule. You Go Up One Long Row, Then Down Another, And Try Not To Look Up Too Often To See How Far You Still Have To Go.

I Think I Had A Particular Moment When I Was 15 Years Old. I Read 'crime And Punishment,' And That Book Just, I Think, More Than Any Other Book Made Me Want To Be A Writer, 'cause It Was The First Time That I Hadn't Just Entered A Book, But A Book Had Entered Me.

I Usually Do At Least A Dozen Drafts And Progressively Make More-conscious Decisions. Because I've Always Believed Stories Are Closer To Poems Than Novels, I Spend A Lot Of Time On The Story's Larger Rhythms, Such As Sentence And Paragraph Length, Placement Of Flashbacks And Dialogue.

Intensely Moving But Never Sentimental, Academy Street Is A Profound Meditation On What Faulkner Called 'the Human Heart In Conflict With Itself'. In Tess Lohan, Mary Costello Has Created One Of The Most Fully Realized Characters In Contemporary Fiction. What A Marvel Of A Book.