Abandon professionalism. Hard work, always, is essential, but the notion that there is such a thing as “success”—a large audience, critical acclaim, and money—is, for nearly all of us, a delusion.
The Rogue Factor
A week ago, I had the distinct honor and privilege of speaking to 300 students and faculty at Morehead State University in the far eastern corner of Kentucky. The experience will stay with me for a long while.
Wild West Women
The ur-stories of the West are still ours to tell, not the stories of whores or missionaries, but of buffalo-killers who gut and skin their prey.
Genius
There are so many obligations, so many treats and distractions, that I have failed—until now—to change my life to accommodate the books I still want and need to write.
Egg Day
This past Lent I thought I made an agreement with myself to enter into all the ceremonies of that six-weeks season of suffering… and then to reward myself with the glorious resurrection of Easter.
New Car
Over the weeks, my anger grew at the thought that such an inconvenience—a turn signal that wouldn’t stop—was somehow considered an improvement.
Mister Jackson
Is there any reason to hope that we humans can also “abandon our usual strategies and learn something new and unexpected?”
Black Pip In Springtime
Our spring comes with a roar of wind and startling blasts of cold air, but it is spring, nonetheless, and Pip and I rejoice.
How to Write
As my biography of Doris Duke continues to simmer in the editing vats at Farrar, Straus, I must for my salvation begin to write—again.
The Queen
Women have always thronged to churches, finding solace in this image of holy suffering. Is it possible that someday we will throng to the images of the Queen?