When I was a boy, I would read those postcards and know exactly why my father was doing what he was doing: he was taking a stab at greatness, that is….

Sometimes the lies you tell are less frightening than the loneliness you might feel if you stopped telling them..

There is something underwhelming about scholarly hate mail - the sad literary allusions, the refusal to use contractions..

Some people, when desperate, retreat to pills or hard liquor. I nap..