The Art of Tetman Callis

“To despair was to wish back for something already lost.  Or to prolong what was already unbearable.  How much can you wish for a favorite warm coat that hangs in the closet of a house that burned down with your mother and father inside of it?  How long can you see in your mind arms [...]

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“It’s in words that the magic is—Abracadabra, Open Sesame, and the rest—but the magic words in one story aren’t magical in the next.  The real magic is to understand which words work, and when, and for what; the trick is to learn the trick.” — John Barth, “Dunyazadiad”

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“Women fall in love when they get to know you.  Men are just the opposite.  When they finally know you they’re ready to leave.” — James Salter, “American Express”

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“Sports, politics, and religion are the three passions of the badly educated.” — William H. Gass, “In the Heart of the Heart of the Country”

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“Love is infinite and one.  Women are not.  Neither are men.  The human condition.  Nearly unbearable.” — Leonard Michaels, “City Boy”

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“In a crisis you discover everything.  Then it’s too late.  Know yourself, indeed.  You need a crisis every day.” — Leonard Michaels, “City Boy”

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“Old men are just as bad as young men when it comes to money.  They can’t think.  They always try to buy what they should have for free.  And what they buy, after they have it, is nothing.” — James Alan McPherson, “A Solo Song: For Doc”

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“While the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard.  There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.” — James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”

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“The beginning of everything is damp and small, but wide-armed oaks—according to myth, legend, and the folk tales of the people—from solitary acorns grow.” — Grace Paley, “In Time Which Made a Monkey of Us All”

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“A poet is a man, who, having nothing to do, finds something to do.” — Anatole Broyard (from The Granta Book of the American Short Story, ed. Ford)

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“Intense loneliness gives all great American literature something in common, the sense of a lonely animal howling in the dark.” — Stephen Spender (from The Granta Book of the American Short Story, ed. Ford)

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“Once language exists only to convey information it is dying.” — Richard Hugo (from The Granta Book of the American Short Story, ed. Ford)

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