The Folks I Read As A Kid

Fiction Helps Me To Reconnect With The True, Deep Weirdness Inherent In Everyday Reality, In Our Dealings With One Another, In Just Being Alive.

My Fingers Curl Through The Holes In The Wicker, Through The Wet Grass Beneath It, Trying To Hold Tight To The Sharp Blades Of The Present. Somewhere In My Brain A Sinkhole Is Bubbling Over, And Each Bubble Contains A Scene From A Tiny Sunken World ... I Have Never Been The Prophet Of My Own Past Before. It Makes Me Wonder How The Healthy Dreamers Can Bear To Sleep At All, If Sleep Means That You Have To Peer Into That Sinkhole By Yourself. ... I Had Almost Forgotten This Occipital Sorrow, The Way You Are So Alone With The Things You See In Dreams.

If You're Short On Time, That Would Be The Two-word Version Of Our Story: We Fell.

When I Was Younger I Used To Lock Myself In The Bathroom And Read In The Dry Tub. I Was Also A Fan Of The 'shoe Closet.' Reading Felt Thrilling And Illicit And Deeply Private To Me, And I Felt Vulnerable Doing It In Public.

It Took Me The Bulk Of My Twenties To Write One Book About A Family Of Alligator Wrestlers. Whereas Somebody Like Steve Martin Is Releasing His Latest Banjo Symphony, Having Just Completed Another Movie And Acclaimed, Best-selling Novel.