Michael On
Michael On
tuesday reptiles afternoon
Novelist time is reptile time; novelists tend to be ruminant and brooding, nursers of ancient grievances, second-guessers, Tuesday afternoon quarterbacks, retrospectators, endlessly, like slumping hitters, studying the film of their old whiffs.
editors phones houdini
To me, Clark Kent in a phone booth and Houdini in a packing crate, they were one and the same thing," he would learnedly expound at WonderCon or Angoulême or to the editor of The Comics Journal . "You weren't the same person when you came out as when you went in.
steps culture devolution
The devolution of American culture takes another great step forward
reviews deep-breath breaths
Every time another review comes out I let out a deep breath.
couple boys men
[I]n 1938, Superman appeared. He had been mailed to the offices of National Periodical Publications from Cleveland, by a couple of Jewish boys who had imbued him with the powers of a hundred men, of a distant world, and of the full measure of their bespectacled adolescent hopefulness and desperation.
invisible untouchables felt
Some things that are invisible and untouchable can nevertheless be seen and felt.
paper salvation said
See you in the funny papers," he said. Jaunty, he reminded himself; always jaunty. In my panache is their hope for salvation.
imagination imagine i-can
I can imagine anything except having no imagination.
mistake great-love terrible
... But he believed that every great love was in some measure a terrible mistake.
moments disappointed ifs
He looked so profoundly disappointed in me that I wondered for a moment if he was someone I knew.
nice spring heart
It was nice standing out in the darkness, in the damp grass, with spring coming on and a feeling in my heart of imminent disaster.
taken clothes experience
Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. There is no mystery about why this should be so. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of your food, your closet full of your clothes -- with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating.
movie inspiring world
I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.
science prejudice opinion
Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.