Like this man, like my father, like any of us who deal in memory, I had to confess what I knew. People don’t come back, and they wouldn’t recognize us if they did.

My last contribution to music was the Grunge movement, which brought bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Sonic Youth to the forefront of pop culture. Everything’s gone to shit since then, unfortunately.

“Don’t come near me!” she shrieked again and snatched up a knife from the table. She waved it in front of her like a medieval knight and then aimed its point at the man’s heart. “And now tell me the truth, who are you really and what are you looking for?”

In the JetBlue terminal Jack tries to stay awake to hear his name called on stand-by. He hates everyone he’s seen in this entire airport.

The first time the Chairman swam across Long River, a decade ago, he proclaimed it was big, but not frightening – like many challenges our country faced.

Even my flat doesn’t think I should be here, Luca. It tipped up really badly again last night. Over the ocean, it's so scary. I was in the kitchen, watching to see if tonight would be his fire, and then in the dark everything came rushing into my head like it does. The flat slid down fast and slammed me against the back wall.

The scent of wood smoke carried on the night air, touched with a flavor of tar, paint, and rubber. Danny Stark knew right away that a house was on fire.

"My clients are more sophisticated then those men who bought Dad’s paintings of me at the Archery, Arts, and Ammo store. My clients like that I’m from Iowa. It sounds wholesome. Iowa means state fairs, freshly canned peaches, corn on the cob, and hogs. Some clients ask about the potatoes. That’s Idaho. Don’t schools teach geography any more? There’s a big difference between Boise and Des Moines, I’ll tell you that. "

Reading Thor Garcia’s first novel The News Clown on the metro from Jiřího z Poděbrad to Skalka last week, I realized three things. The first was that I had been reading nonstop since my journey from work began at far off Nové Butovice. The second was that I had been snorting laughter through my nose the whole way. The third was that the old lady sitting opposite was now staring at me like I was dribbling and drinking Jelzin vodka from the bottle.