Sublime

I always said that Lemony Snicket couldn’t be there at the bookstore, that I was his official representative and thus a guaranteed disappointment, and the young people grasped at once that I was somebody pretending to be somebody pretending to be somebody.

“God, you can say that and get away with it?” I’ve seen a total stranger come up to Bill on the street in New York: “Bill, love you on Saturday Night!” He says, “You motherfucker, I’m going to bite your nose!” He wrestles him to the ground—total stranger—and bites his nose. I guess you can do that.

Who is “I” in “I hurt”? The one who inflicts the pain or the one who suffers it? And does “hurt” refer to the inflicting or the suffering?

That’s not who he is. He’s defiant.