Until a friend or relative has applied a particular proverb to your own life, or until you've watched him apply the proverb to his own life, it has no power to sway you.

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• Nicholson Baker:

  For me, as a beginning novelist, all other living writers form a control group for whom the world i

• Nicholson Baker:

  Shoes are the first adult machines we are given to master.

• Nicholson Baker:

  I don't do all that well in the writerly world. I'm happier being outside the flow.

• Nicholson Baker:

  I really practiced hard and got to a certain level of technical proficiency. I overcame some of my

• Nicholson Baker:

  The music wasn't going to happen, and I realized I had read so little. I didn't know my way around

• Nicholson Baker:

  I was very shy and somewhat awkward. I studied too hard. And to have this exciting dorm life was a

• Nicholson Baker:

  I keep thinking I'll enjoy suspense novels, and sometimes I do. I've read about 20 Dick Francis nov

• Nicholson Baker:

  When I really want to be soothed and reminded of why people bother to fiddle with sentences, I ofte

• Nicholson Baker:

  Many good poets are really essayists who write very short essays.

• Nicholson Baker:

  E.B. White's essays are the best things I've read about Maine - especially the one in which he's no