=Gore Vidal on Other People=

If you have known one person you have known them all. Of course, I am not so sure that I have known even one person well, but, as the Greeks sensibly believed, should you get to know yourself, you will have penetrated as much of the human mystery as anyone need ever know. 

=Did I Say?=

He called himself an entrepreneur. It was our first date. After dinner, he invited me back to his place to see his extensive collection of celebrity souls. He had them arranged on shelves in alphabetical order. From Anna Akhmatova to Garo Yepremian. "Did I say souls? Of course, I meant wines." He shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. I was a priestess in those days. I cast spells on my enemies. They discovered small lumps in their breasts when they showered; woke up hysterically blind. Did I say "priestess"? I meant to say physical therapist. I never willfully hurt a soul in my life. Outside, down in the alley, the boys are playing stickball. Each one of them has a stick. There is no ball in sight. Did I say "stickball"? They are hacking each other to death with machetes.

=Enough about me?!=

=Franz Wright=

The spiritual condition of hope derives from the obvious hopelessness of every mortal's physical condition, the death sentence we are all living under.

=mea culpa=

=Notes Toward a Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics=

In the morning you wake
before your dreams
drawn to the windows.

Mist rising
from the lake
as if it were real.

What are the words 
too tough to chew
too big to spit out?

What are these blank spaces
on the map of memories
spread on the beds
you're forever leaving?

Where are you always going so early?

In the cat's unyielding eyes
you recognize an intelligence
alien and metallic.

You're not interested in stealing
anyone's breath.
It would be of no use to you, anyhow.

You breath a different
private atmosphere.

If you knew what home was
you could say how far you were away from it.

As it is,
you just want to understand
a few things
before you go.

As it is,
you feel most comfortable
halfway out the door.

=William Gass=

Can I forgive the plague I am?
Perhaps there is no right life to be lived.

=mea culpa=

=An Easy Way to Improve Your Mood=

When I emerged from the dark days,

my hands started to sweat and my head started to spin. 
My stomach felt like a mole emerging from a hole

and being startled by the glare of Alpha Centauri.

Could you be a gnome?

An elf?

If you had magical abilities,

how would you use them?

We love looking at creepy photographs

of former mental institutions

that have fallen into disrepair.

Sometimes the true story behind these hospitals

is far worse than a wound

too large for the sword

to stop the bleeding.

The aged surgeon took a nihilistic approach.

The bad kind, that hacks and twists and drills into people's jaws, pulling out bits of flesh.

In economics, the invisible hand

is a metaphor

used by Adam Smith

to refrain from touching anything.

There's no easier way to improve your mood
than by learning things like the sentence 
"Hamlet kills Claudius" without having the faintest idea
what will happen
when they unleash the wolves in the forest.
Trust me, it's delicious.

=Best Friends=

An accountant is your best friend.

He can act as a lifejacket.

He knows your business.

I have a friend who’s been involved in ham radio

for years.

He highly recommended his best friend:

the solar system.

An accident can be your best friend.

But if you were really mad at your best friend for accidentally killing your family what would you do?

Are you as stupid as your uncle or are you the brains in the family?

Then an abortion is your best friend.

It is much easier to talk with strangers

than to hear your best friend tell you

the whole truth about peristalsis.