Long after all the neighborhood lights dim and the city descends to a hush and there’s nothing but the slightest whisper of wind in the distance.

To learn that a vibrant, engaging novelist was also spirited in his personal correspondence shouldn’t come with a shock.

Here is a dichotomy about writers that I want to introduce: there are sculptors and there are speakers.

To assume that style is distinct from substance still remains a commonplace yet peculiar view.

If a breathless artist awaits your verdict, some basic principles are available.

Attempting to stop the language from changing is one surefire method of looking foolish in the future.

You might wish for fame or acclaim or recognition, but you rarely want an accurate spotlight that peers too deep.

We can’t dismantle or parse or interrogate the literary world any further—it is time to look up from the microscope and adjust our eyes to what’s left.

To my eye this touches on the split between the literal mind and the ironic mind.

Even though it is fairly common for writers to disparage clichés, it is rare for writers to explain that disparagement.

For a critical piece it is worth remembering that a writer’s contract is always with the reader.

For reasons that escape my understanding, most students aren’t taught the conventions of contemporary English writing.

Nearly everyone notices that epiphanies have a propensity to strike during showers.

When I arrive in a city for the first time, my conclusions typically arrive on the next plane.

There’s an assumption that today’s acclaim will never be esoteric or forgettable or even uninteresting to future generations.

Spend a little time with Dostoevsky if you’re ever feeling a bit glum.

To spend the majority of your time crafting artificial symbols on a surface—whether your medium is stone, paper, or pixels—will always be a curious behavior.

To read an incomplete manuscript is to catch a writer in the nude

If you are ever lost in an Italian city, look for Dante Alighieri street.

Tossing out the word fate might be sufficient to hush most dinner parties.