IN ACT 3 of Hamlet, Prince Hamlet offers instruction to a troupe of actors. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you,...

WITHOUT RELEVANCE, history is little more than entertainment, a benign curiosity. History can be shy about giving up its secrets. It...

This is, or should be, item #1 in the writer's catechism. The shy, fabulous, satisfying, all-knowing point.

IF WRITING IS ANYTHING, IT IS A PERFORMANCE. The writer is the lone figure on the stage. A world may watch, judge, applaud, hiss, throw...

The infinite is liberated through the finite, that is, through the absolute completeness of a line.