“I stopped listening to tapes at some point: it was a phase. You either get used to noises in your head, or you learn to focus instead on whatever other noises happen to present in the room, like the air conditioner. Still, I kept them, and they’re arranged neatly on the top of the dresser in my bedroom, which means Vicky dusts them once a week. They look like museum pieces now. Chaos Blood, Black Lake, Rexecutioner’s Dream. Sean at sixteen thought Rexecutioner’s Dream was the greatest thing he’d ever heard, something so strange and different it seemed like a … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“I had solved nothing, but I felt clever in making progress. And feeling clever, I’ve always thought, is just a sigh away from being cheerful.” –Ian McEwan, Sweet Tooth, 2012 “YOU WHO DWELL HERE ARE ALL THE SAME! YOU THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY RACE INHABITING THIS PLANET! YOU NEVER SUSPECT THAT ANOTHER — MORE POWERFUL SPECIES MIGHT SHARE YOUR PLANET WITH YOU! DO YOU PRESUME TO THINK THAT HUMANS ARE THE ONLY INTELLIGENT LIFE EARTH HAS SPAWNED!” –Stan Lee, FANTASTIC FOUR, Vol. 1, No. 46, “Those Who Would Destroy Us!” 1966 Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“Everyone laughs except Bix, who’s at his computer, and you feel like a funny guy for maybe half a second, until it occurs to you that they probably only laughed because they could see you trying to be funny, and they’re afraid you’ll jump out the window onto East Seventh Street if you fail, even at something so small.” –Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 2010 “YOUR NAME IS BEVERLY GABLE, AND YOU ARE RETURNING HOME AFTER AN EVENING OF BABY-SITTING. FOR THREE AND ONE-HALF HOURS YOU WATCHED THE FLICKERING IMAGES PLAYING ON A TELEVISION SET, OBLIVIOUS TO … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“If ifs and buts were candies and nuts we’d all have a very Merry Christmas, I heard my aunt Diane boom in my head. Those words had been the bane of my childhood, a constant reminder that nothing turned out right, not just for me but for anyone, and that’s why someone had invented a saying like that. So we’d all know that we’d never have what we needed.” –Gillian Flynn, Dark Places, 2009 “CLARKE FUTURISTICS: CALL IT A DREAM GONE BUST–JUST ONE MORE INSIGNIFICANT VICTIM OF THE RECESSION. STUART CLARKE HAD POURED HIS SOUL INTO A VISION OF THE … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“‘I wonder,’ she was fond of remarking, ‘what they’d say if they knew that we two old tramps were going to be the most marvellous novelist and the greatest actress in the world.’ “‘They’d probably be very much surprised.’ “‘I expect we shall look back on this time when we’re driving about in our Mercedes, and think: After all, it wasn’t such bad fun!’” –Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin, 1939 “THEY WALKED ACROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE AT DAWN, STOPPING HALFWAY TO WATCH THE RISING SUN> PAINT THE MONOLITHIC OFFICE TOWERS OF LOWER MANHATTAN IN STREAKS OF FIRE. THEY’D STARTED THE … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature