Excerpts from 'Life Sentences'

From 'Retrospection'

"One aspect of writing was easy, was unstoppable, and that was the flow of imagery that ran through my head like a creek in flood — no — like the babble of voices around a bar at happy hour — no — like a stream of ants toward a source of sugar — oh, no — like carp rise to a dimple of bread — oh, no, oh, no — a cloud of gnats — a giggle when tickled. An attack of bats. I could swat away six and still write eight. It was a curse disguised as a blessing. I was always looking at the world from another word."

From 'The Literary Miracle'

"To adorn nature with a new thing: that is the miracle that matters. Most prose flows into an ocean of undifferentiated words. To objectify through language a created consciousness, provide it with the treasured particularity we hope for each human being —    that is the cherished aim of the art."

From 'Spit in the Mitt'

"The cap was the cap of the St. Louis Browns, and it was my father's repeated story that he had been a Brownie — a utility infielder, for one catastrophic season — but with the Browns what other kinds of seasons were there?"