Excerpt from Best Thought, Worst Thought

On ADVICE
“All my teachers have been women. Although several men have taken me aside for an hour to tell me things they know.”

On SEX
“A mercy, I supposed, that it ended. Any deeper intimacy with each other’s anatomy would have involved murder.”

On DEATH
“Whenever he say someone reading a bible, he would spoil it for them by whispering, ‘He dies in the end, you know.’ I’m always tempted to do the same to anyone I see consulting their diary.”

On ART
“Mediocre art is far worse than bad art. Bad art does not waste our time.”

On WORK
“I have owed a slight acquaintance, K., an email for six months. This morning I hear he has died. My single obsequy was to cross him off my to-do list, and feel my burden lighten a little. I even caught myself wondering if there might be something in this that could be worked up into a general strategy.”