Perhaps Everyone Has A Story That Could

Memoir Is Actually The Most Egoless Genre, Even Though It Might Seem Ostensibly So Much Ego-driven. In Order For It To Succeed, You Have To Dissolve The Self Into These Larger Universal Truths, And Explore These Deeper Mysteries. If It’s Purely Autobiographical And Ego-driven, It’s Going To Fail.

In My Experience, Whatever Happens Clings To Us Like Barnacles On The Hull Of A Ship, Slowing Us Slightly, Both Uglifying And Giving Us Texture. You Can Scrape All You Want, You Can, If You Have Money, Hire Someone Else To Scrape, But The Barnacles Will Come Back Or At Least Leave A Blemish On The Steel.

In Life You Get One Take, And It's Perfect. It's Strange, Afterwards You Might Think I Shouldn't Have Reacted That Way, But That's The Way You Reacted. That's Your Take; That's All You Get.

Sometimes I'd See My Father, Walking Past My Building On His Way To Another Nowhere. I Could Have Given Him A Key, Offered A Piece Of My Floor. A Futon. A Bed. But I Never Did. If I Let Him Inside I Would Become Him, The Line Between Us Would Blur, My Own Slow-motion Car Wreck Would Speed Up. The Slogan On The Side Of A Moving Company Truck Read Together We Are Going Places--modified By A Vandal Or A Disgruntled Employee To Read Together We Are Going Down. If I Went To The Drowning Man The Drowning Man Would Pull Me Under. I Couldn't Be His Life Raft.

I Get Inspired By My Friends, And If A Friend Is A Writer, That Is Even Deeper.