An Honest Ghost (18 page)

I think that: Plato Collected Dialogues 76

He is tortured: Montaigne Selected Essays 20

My real type: John Waters Role Models 229

Meaning is never: Roland Barthes Reader xvii

But in the: Michael Warner The Trouble with Normal 17

It hurts: Brane Mozetic Banalities 28

I don’t know: Jonathan Ames I Love You 161

David sighs: John Waters Role Models 224

“Turn over here: Sam Massey Return of the Greek 116

He puts on: Ludwig Wittgenstein Lectures 1932-35 63

“Maybe you’re ready: David McConnell Firebrat 127

He lay on: Alfred Chester The Exquisite Corpse 30

He’s a man: Jean Genet The Declared Enemy 12

“Go to hell: Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms 32

This is the: Thomas Bernhard My Prizes 77

To me the: Gore Vidal Two Sisters 126

We never release: Denis Donoghue American Classics 191

At any rate: Thomas Bernhard My Prizes 98

I had to: David McConnell Firebrat 235

28.

The cocks are: MiKiš TheodoraKiš Journal of Resistance 156

It is like: John Koethe Poetry at One Remove 12

Christmas was approaching: Robert Walser The Assistant

271

Joe slept on: Ron Padgett Joe 60

He hears nothing: Michel de Ghelderode 7

Plays 242

This was a: Evan S. Connell Mrs. Bridge 124

Like many people: Doug Crase Both 237

“You don’t know: Honoré de Balzac Lost Illusions 536

He had his: James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young

Man 144

“I wish we: Ivy Compton-Burnett A Family and a Fortune

27

This, he insisted: Kenneth Burke Towards a Better Life 7

“Poor boy!: Honoré de Balzac Lost Illusions 500

“You won’t believe: Justin Taylor Everything Here is the

Best Thing Ever 11

At the risk: Stepehn Jay Gould Hen’s Teeth 133

David drank slowly: Don DeLillo The Names 219

He was a: Gilbert Highet Poets in a Landcsape 137

It had brought: Marion Meade Eleanor of Acquitaine 189

The Romantic is: Edmund Wilson Axel’s Castle 10

Etc, etc: Gordon Lish Collected Fictions 21

I suppose it: Christopher Bollas The Shadow of the Object

257

The sex with: James Blake The Joint 355

Desire was his: Bruce Duffy The World As I Found It 31

Seeing Dick Cheney: David Wojnarowicz Memories That

Smell Like Gasoline 44

Joe and I: Charles Dickens Great Expectations 160

Television is a: George W. S. Trow In the Context of No

Context 45

The vivid rhetoric: Susan Howe My Emily Dickinson 46

“Don’t lose your: Charles Dickens Great Expectations 131

“He should have: Rachel Ingalls Mrs. Caliban 16

You took the: James Joyce Finnegans Wake 66

I’m getting so: Hart Crane Library of America: Collected

Poems and Selected Letters 370

Joyce is right: James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son 162

History makes me: Rob Stephenson Passes Through 37

I thought: Gordon Lish Collected Fictions 60

I am all: David Wojnarowicz Memories That Smell Like

Gasoline 60

There is no: Fran Lebowitz Reader 12

Must be the: David Wojnarowicz Memories That Smell

Like Gasoline 43

It’s right before: Lydie Salvayre Power of Flies 157

“Dad,” he says: David Gilbert Remote Feed 95

“Don’t worry”: Ron Padgett Joe 85

“OK, OK”: Rachel Ingalls Mrs. Caliban 24

I do not: Willa Cather Death Comes for the Archbishop 50

My dear child: Bertolt Brecht Galileo 69

29.

David introduced me: Don DeLillo The Names 6

He was not: Charles Henri Ford Like Water from a Bucket

156

It was a: D. H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers 5

In all things: Donald keene The Pleasures of Japanese

Literature 7

Or was I: Nicholson Baker Room Temperature 11

I stared at: Paula Fox The Coldest Winter 57

He was tall: Albert Camus The Plague 146

He had a: Jane Gardam Faith Fox 133

In his left: Danilo Kiš Encyclopedia of the Dead 3

He’s a former: James Blake The Joint 90

For all I: Henry James Portrait of a Lady 497

Perhaps the man: D. H. Lawrence Stories Vol I 96

He also struck: Anita Brookner Look at Me 73

The handshake of: Helen Keller The World I Live In 9

There are some: Charles Warren Stoddard For the Pleasure

of His Company 29

A single insight: Samuel Beckett Nohow On 85

As a child: Robert Frost The Notebooks of Robert Frost 30

And so on: Danilo Kiš Encyclopedia of the Dead 7

He was one: Edgar Saltus Mr Incoul’s Misadventure 3

His bald head: Michael Cunningham By Nightfall 7

He stared at: Emilio Lascano Tegui On Elegance While

Sleeping 13

The signs of: Dezso Kosztalanyi Skylark 77

There was a: Jane Gardam Faith Fox 100

“I suppose I’m: Patricia Highsmith Tremor of Forgery 244

I was just: T. J. Parsell Fish 154

A bitch: Ronald Firbank Five Novels 373

David said he: E. F. Benson David Blaize 311

Dandruff dusted the: Kosztal Sklyark 76

“David, what is: Philip Roth Professor of Desire 114

The young man: Richard Rodriguez Brown 223

“David told me: Philip Roth Professor of Desire 233

His voice was: Sylvia Townsend Warner Summer Will

Show 114

He uses a language: Thomas Bernhard Gargoyles 97

“Ah, they’re part: Henry James Portrait of a Lady 247

Sometimes not so: Edward Mendelson Later Auden 306

“It’s regrettable, but: Julia Kristeva Colette 18

Oh, honey, don’t: Truman Capote Music for Chameleons

195

So alone, in: Mark Merlis American Studies 181

“We met on: Don DeLillo The Names 265

Ridiculous: Hart Crane Library of America: Collected

Poems and Selected Letters 295

He went from: Andrew Holleran Dancer from the Dance

128

Our flesh shrinks: James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a

Young Man 142

But the fear: Gustave Flaubert Sentimental Education 216

Being full of: B. K. S. Iyengar Light on Yoga 47

I don’t pretend: Graham Greene Travels with My Aunt 11

There is no: Leo Lerman The Grand Surprise 568

He has become: Ted Hughes Tales From Ovid 17

Drinking, unfortunately, can: Douglas Crase Both 206

Oh, dear, I: D. H. Lawrence St. Mawr 110

The measure of: Robert Frost The Notebooks of Robert

Frost 315

But, dear David: Philip Roth Professor of Desire 128

“You wicked boy: Plato Collected Dialogues 107

Some time was: Albert Camus The Plague 148

“His wife is: Albert Camus The Plague 143

My eyes filled: Helen Keller The World I Live In 20

While his soul: James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a

Young Man 140

Even now, after: Kenzaburo Oe A Personal Matter 116

“He’s living with: Kenzaburo Oe A Personal Matter 133

So I think: Lynne Sharon Schwartz The Emergence of

Memory 45

Perhaps: Søren Kierkegaard Works of Love 234

And homesick is: James Blake The Joint 379

It was interesting: Don DeLillo The Names 265

What was his: Samuel Beckett Disjecta 63

He seemed to: Elizabeth Gilbert Last American Man 220

I remember everything: Fyodor Dostoevsky House of the

Dead 320

I found his: Edmund White My Lives 248

“What do I: James Wood The Book Against God 248

There should have: Ken Kesey Sometimes a Great Notion

“I’m not recommending: John Francis Hunter The Gay

Insider 56

“I couldn’t do: Kenzaburo Oe A Personal Matter 127

“You are sleeping: J. M. Barrie The White Bird 209

“I Love You: Jonathan Ames I Love You 78

When God hands: Truman Capote Music for Chameleons

xi

But not David’s: John Waters Role Models 222

“Well, I mean: Fyodor Dostoevsky House of the Dead 115

I segue into: Lydie Salvayre Power of Flies 2

Inconstancy, boredom, anxiety: Pascal Pensees 137

This estrangement is: John Koethe Poetry at One Remove

38

“I’ll give you: Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange 74

“Now, just wait: John Cheever Stories 520

David beams, showing: John Waters Role Models 223

“I’m sure you: Christopher Priest The Glamour 169

But there he: Samuel Beckett Disjecta 50

What better way: Jacques Lacan Four Fundamental

Concepts 133

“I wish you’d: J. D. Salinger Franny and Zooey 117

He was happiest: Gilbert Highet Poets in a Landscape 22

I watched them: Pamela Erens The Understory 16

Like lightning they: Giacomo Leopardi Canti 47

But what do: Julia Kristeva Colette 299

“Every son loves: Darcy O’Brien A Way of Life Like Any

Other 25

One is inclined: John Koethe Poetry at One Remove 31

“He needs you: Andre Tellier Twilight Men 64

He could not: Gilbert Highet Poets in a Landscape 21

I thought of: Graham Greene Travels with My Aunt 19

We used to: Anne Landsman The Rowing Lesson 245

To the east: Warner The Corner That Held Them 10

But soon I: Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange 111

Why not: Craig Seligman Sontag and Kael: Opposites

Attract Me 41

30.

I have returned: Umberto Eco Mysterious Flame 435

It’s expensive, but: Charles Kaiser The Gay Metropolis vii It has a: D. H. Lawrence Etruscan Places 8

The awareness that: Shunryu Suzuki Zen Mind, Beginner’s

Mind 40

But nothing is: Sarah Bakewell How to Live 55

Everywhere I turned: J. G. Ballard Miracles of Life 29

Twenty-first century: Harold Bloom Anatomy of Influence

4

I refuse to: Rob Stephenson Passes Through 79

There, I always: Thomas Bernhard My Prizes 99

This clearer view: Harry Mathews The Journalist 4

“It’s all very: Charles Dickens Barnaby Rudge 578

“Aren’t you bored: Robert Walser The Assistant 233

He is rarely: Denis Donoghue American Classics 170

The older I: Anthony Holden Tchaikovsky 224

Love for a: Jean Genet Funeral Rites 18

A curious sea: Virginia Woolf Diaries Vol V 359

An atmosphere of: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa The

Leopard 41

If I had: John Ashbery Flow Chart 29

A “feel bad”: John Waters Role Models 171

Reading is like: Daniel Mendelsohn The Elusive Embrace 6

It was the: Susanna Pinney, ed. I’ll Stand by You: Letters of

Sylvia Townsend Warner 25

Climatically speaking: Jean Echenoz I’m Gone 189

Years ago I: Gore Vidal Inventing a Nation 7

You must admit: Georges Bataille Blue of Noon 34

“Ha ha ha: Afred Chester Jamie Is My Heart’s Desire 101

She drained her: Graham Greene Travels with My Aunt 12

“I liked him: David Gilbert Remote Feed 116

“People can say: Jean Genet Funeral Rites 14

Adversity has its: Charles Kaiser The Gay Metropolis 218

The notion of: Emilio Lascano Tegui On Elegance While

Sleeping 25

I am not: Umberto Eco Mysterious Flame 385

In other words: Alex Ross Listen to This 294

Mental confusion is: Georg Lukacs History and Class

Consciousness xi

Human communication, it: Graham Greene Travels with

My Aunt 84

It’s always late: Brane Mozetic Banalities 31

“Want to guess: Dorothy Gallagher Life Stories 12

“What?” Joe said: Ken Kesey Sometimes a Great Notion

450

He lay back: Blair Niles Strange Brother 146

What does it: Daniel Mendelsohn The Elusive Embrace 51

“Her father,” I: John Cheever Stories 684

We only laugh: Adam Phillips Equals 43

The youth became: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa The

Leopard 27

“I met him: Graham Greene Travels with My Aunt 59

Unbearable: Samuel Beckett Disjecta 12

He kept asking: Alfred Chester The Exquisite Corpse 52

He says a: Truman Capote A Christmas Memory 72

I acted bored: Alfred Chester The Exquisite Corpse 53

To face up: Charles Guignon On Being Authentic 133

Funny, I’m not: Kenzaburo Oe A Personal Matter 131

What I need: Susanna Pinney, ed. I’ll Stand by You: Letters

of Sylvia Townsend Warner 8

It is a: W. G. Sebald Vertigo 157

And yet here: Bill Pronzini The Hidden 58

We are drinking: Truman Capote Music for Chameleons 3

Intellectually we were: Georg Lukacs History and Class

Consciousness xi

The task would: Richard Wollheim Painting as an Art 301

How to avoid: Charles Henri Ford Like Water from a

Bucket 36

Opting out of: Jean-Christophe Valtat 03

65 Desire is the: Tim Dean Unlimited Intimacy 174

It is a: Lynne Sharon Schwartz Emergence of Memory 56

“Forget it, Joe: Ken Kesey Sometimes a Great Notion 475

Let’s discuss you: John Francis Hunter The Gay Insider 35

But that didn’t: Frederick and Steven Barthelme Double

Down 135

“Efen if zey: Honoré de Balzac Lost Illusions 542

Adultery’s more fun: Green The Heart of the Matter 222

“So David tells: J. M. Barrie The White Bird 254

May we now: Joseph Breuer and Sigmund Freud Studies in

Hysteria 164

Joe was not: Ron Padgett Joe 203

This the way: James Joyce Finnegans Wake 94

It was already: Anton Chekhov The Portable Chekhov 410

Full moon sends: Anne Carson Autobiography of Red 65

I wanted to: Denton Welch Maiden Voyage 284

I groaned and: Ken Kesey Sometimes a Great Notion 452

“I’ve got something: W. H. Auden Forewords and

Afterwords 458

Love amazes, but: Susanna Pinney, ed. I’ll Stand by You: