Suzanne Berne

Where do you get your ideas?' people are always asking authors they admire, which I__e always thought was another way of asking, 'How did you get my ideas, which I didn__ know I had until you put words to them?' We are known, appreciated, even cherished by our favorite writers; every word of our favorite books seems to have been written for us. Within their sentences and paragraphs, those writers are forever available, forever patient, including us in their compassionate recognition of the impossible, exhausting complexity of being human (those __any thousand_ selves), never ignoring us or abandoning us or finding us dull. It__ you, they whisper, as we turn their pages, you are the one I__e been waiting to tell everything to.

George watched this exchange with disappointment. "Performance parenting" was how Tina used to describe it. Seeking to charm listeners in public with one's patience and good humor, using one's child as a foil. Had George not been there, Emily would have told Nicholas to be quiet or no ice cream and that would have been the end of it.