‘As he spoke, I thought how much Richard himself looked like a flyer: at forty-three he is symmetrical and compact, like Scott Tracy, the handsomest of those idealized pilots in Thunderbirds.’
I should have gone to Coney Island. I can imagine Americans reading this and saying: ‘The guy’s writing about coasters, and he’s never been to Coney. He’s never ridden the Cyclone!’ Then again, everyone I spoke to advised me not to go, at least not alone, not on the subway.
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
‘It was as though, after a period of wariness, my pipe had warmed to me.’
‘At the moment, I would say that depends what you mean by ‘believe’ and what you mean by “God”’
‘Q: When is a factory not a factory? A: When it’s a chocolate factory.’
‘It was 1 a.m., and it was Los Angeles; they were used to indiscretion.’
A story by Rhian Sasseen.
Caryl Phillips on being chosen as a Best of Young British Novelists in 1993 and the nascent culture of literary celebrity.
‘I prefer not to speculate about what might have happened if I had not taken the ECG.’
