“The bookstore was a wreck. much hadn't been a dream. I began to stand and stopped, realizing there was a sheet of paper taped to my coat. Dazedly, I pulled it off.”

“but then she did. she died. no more visits, no more phone calls. And without even realizing it, I began to drift, as if my roots had been pulled, as if I were floating down some side branch of a river.”

“My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have been wrecked.”

“I sleep in the nude but I pull the sheets up.”

“Darling, all night
I have been flickering, off, on, off, on.
The sheets grow heavy as a lecher's kiss.”

“I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book.”

“… this time I didn't launch into my usual tirade. Was it a memory of Krishna, the cool silence with which he countered disagreement, that stopped me? I saw something I hadn't realized before: words wasted energy.”

“I forgive the wrecked dreams,”

“The world is much larger than I once dreamed, or perhaps my place in it is smaller than I once realized.”

“All I need is a sheet of paper
and something to write with, and then
I can turn the world upside down.”