Sublime

“the Columbo effect”—

By June, about two-thirds of what was left after the half had been removed was craftily Scotch-taped onto regulation 8 ½” x 11” pages: diabolically, this man Wallace had turned what was once a Jacaranda Leven harum-scarum mess (she was such a mess) into an elegant, readable, calmly ordered cloistered hallway. You could practically hear the silence

Emma and Wallace had become friends by virtue of the fact that neither of them was a white man in their program.

Wally Brown

Wallace wasn’t clear on what he wanted, unless it was to be left alone—except when he didn’t.

Wallace’s cruise ship piece was about the price of failing to choose well.

Costello remembers getting a letter from Wallace announcing that he wanted to write fiction that would still be read “100 years from now.”