“There are places where cops are not hated, Captain. But in those places you wouldn’t be a cop.” – Raymond Chandler, ‘The Long Goodbye’

“What do you have to write about? You’re not oppressed, you’re not gay! [Writers] are all poor, I can tell ya that!” – John Lithgow, ‘Orange County’ (2002)

“I have loved you like darkness loves the base of a throat yet songs I could sing for you won’t come. City of Lou Malnati’s and Giordano’s,” – Phillip B. Williams, “Declaration”

“Professional writers don’t have muses; they have mortgages.” – Larry Kahaner

A toast to the XenoHive!

“And I do think it’s true that men stole / the magical instruments of women // & we were too busy / with ordinary life / to worry about this” – Hoa Nguyen, “You Say The Land” from ‘HECATE LOCHIA’

“The supermarket shelves have been rearranged. It happened one day without warning. There is agitation and panic in the aisles, dismay in the faces of older shoppers.” – Don DeLillo, ‘White Noise’

“If there’s anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now” – Zaphod Beeblebrox, ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’

“This is futuristic work—work that doesn’t just serve as a reminder that there will be black people in the future, but work that mines for an understanding…” -Hanif Abdurraqib, blurbing ‘Blackspace’

“Great, I thought. It is not mango season and it is not mango country. And I knew those bright flavored gums would not cut it.” – Aimee Bender, “Fruit and Words”