What does it mean to be Catholic and not a Catholic? I feel adrift, homeless. My Catholic imagination allows me to see the soul as a lit breath, seeking the divine. It persists.
The truth is that for those 86 long years when the Red Sox went without a World Series win, fans were not only in a recession, but trapped in a longstanding, deeply entrenched sports depression.
Our imaginations are strong as children. Sometimes they get shoved aside, these imaginations. They get dusty and mildewed with age. The imagination is a muscle that has to be put to use or it shrivels.
When you’re in the world looking for only one thing, you find it or it finds you. The obsession can be mutual.
The lessons learned in journalism also apply. Writing for NPR has taught me to cut a piece in half and then in half again – without losing the essence. Apply that to the swollen prose of a bulky novel and you might reveal a beautiful work.
But there it is: Everyone is alone, for life, and maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
Our love is our burden.
Is it wrong to kill something that wants to kill you?
You learn to exploit genre for the more important things – to my mind – like story, character, image, language.
She glances back before stepping into the alley, and she catches her grandfather looking at her the way he does sometimes – as if she’s already gone, as if he’s practicing sorrow.
She knows that whispers can be useful. Sometimes they contain real information. But usually they’re fairy tales and lies. This is the worst kind of whisper, the kind that draws you in, gives you hope.
Being cross-genre, you can encounter an image and decide not only how to best express it but what form would express it best.
Beauty, you can find it here if you look hard enough.
Memories are like water.
Love is selfless, it is a weakness, a giving in, a constant falling.
My oldest sister was an actress living in NYC by the time I was ten, and desperately wanted to be the one in charge of the words.
I feel too much. It’s like being drummed to death from within. You know?
Sometimes you meet someone and you know that your life will be different from then on.
I’ve never thought there was anything I could hope to get by praying for it.
I prefer a cluttered workspace.