A memory is not a receipt for something that once happened.

If for no other reason—though there are many other reasons—we need writers to hand along the felt reality of the world.

I love the marks life leaves on the books I read: coffee ring, slightest stain from a shaving cut, the bent corners of certain pages, discreet vertical lines next to something that at some point clearly mattered—footprints left on a path I don’t always remember walking.

Revision: the incremental winnowing of potential embarrassments…

It’s like I’m standing to the side watching myself get older.

And @zibaldoni.bsky.social chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6... @drooker.bsky.social chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6... #SimonCritchley chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6... #DougBrod chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6... @birkerts.bsky.social chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6... LOTS of great talks! 2/2

Good question — "What does it mean to be a writer today, when so many other media compete for audiences?" I love a good essay and @birkerts.bsky.social's new collection looks right up my alley. #Booksky folks, you'll dig this: www.arrowsmithpress.com/order/p/the-...

The whole world comes to me now via autocorrect…

When I’m actually taken up into the time of a song…

It’s like the whole world is behind a paywall…

Life task: to stay interested in the sound in your head.

“All dreams are anagrams of diurnal reality.” Nabokov

The ‘verdict of history’ is losing power as a cudgel…

There is a wall somewhere behind which the past eventually goes to hide…

What used to be the private self is now the private self pushing against the world…

I’m gambling on the idea that something in the species will kick back…

I still embrace the ragged world...

Arrival 11/25