Writing turns you into somebody...

who's always wrong.

The illusion that you may

get it right someday

is the perversity

that draws 

you

on.

-Phillip Roth

American Pastoral

Literature takes a habit of mind...

that has disappeared.

It requires silence,

some form of isolation,

and sustained concentration 

in the presence 

of an enigmatic

thing.

-Philip Roth