It turns out that for Ashbery, the big theory was psychoanalysis, the process by which secondhand knowledge becomes firsthand ...

In terms of accuracy of brush mark, Nicole Wittenberg might be the Franz Kline of dick paintings. You have to paint something ...

A book is always about the world, and happy people don’t have time for “about.” 14. Through writing, if you’re lucky, you ...

The name of the book is a ruse. Camping on Low or No Dollars, the dingy cover page reads. An older edition bears a similarly anodyne title: From Birmingham to Wendover. Both are a misdirection, ...

The guidance counselor was my driver’s ed teacher. He liked to talk about football. He didn’t guide me much on driving. I angled the car into the school lot. We never practiced parallel parking.

Wrought on you by surprise.

“Even Saint Teresa said, ‘I can pray better when I’m comfortable.’ I don’t think living in cellars and starving is any better for an artist than it is for anybody else.” ...

I’m tired of lying here. The mountain and the river are not bad.

And wylde for to hold, though I seme tame. W.S. MERWIN: I think this is probably the greatest sonnet Wyatt wrote, and I think it's one of the greatest sonnets in English. I've known it for so many ...