We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are.

...Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little.

Anne Lamott is a writer who looks like a writer.

I must at once get dreadlocks in my hair and make myself look intelligent.

My consolation is that I look more like a writer than I look like a sheep louse.

I promise you.

This weekend I'm having a wonderful time with my lovely writing friend M.J. Hermanny, here to stay until Tuesday. We speak the same language. You wouldn't think that talking about writing, its joys, its frustrations, would be so very difficult for anyone at all to understand. After all, we speak in English; we are reasonably articulate.

We could be speaking in Swahili and not to a person from the Mozambique Channel.

I Googled M.J. Hermanny's name to see if there was a picture of her:

She must be doing well. She has a swimsuit named after her on a site called Temple of Glam.