The Shortest Route To Courage Is Absolute

You've Probably Heard About The Theory Of Steam-engine Time - That Even After The Steam Engine Had Been Invented, It Had To Wait Until People Were Ready To Make Use Of It. The Same Thing Happens In Literary Circles. The Truth Is, I'm Not Terribly Interested In Victorian Times; I'm Interested In Victorian Writers. I'm Interested In Most Eras Of History, But Not The Victorian Era Especially. I Was Interested In The John Franklin Expedition. I Was Interested In These Last Five Weird Years Of Dickens' Life. And I Just Have To Take The Age That Comes With All That When I Write About It.

Merely To Live Without A Pain Is Little Gladness, Little Gain, Ah, Welcome Joy Tho' Mixt With Grief-- The Thorn-set Flower That Crowns The Leaf.

Anticlimax Is, Of Course, The Warp And Way Of Things. Real Life Seldom Structures A Decent Denouement.

If There Is A True Religion In The Universe, It Must Include The Truth Of Contact Or Be Forever Hollow.

You Treat Violence As An Aberration ... When In Truth It Is The Norm. It Is The Very Essence Of The Human Condition.