D. Max - Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story - A Life of David Foster Wallace

216 “not for the faint-hearted,” from Library Journal, January 1996.

216 “Challenging and provocative,” from John Harper, “A Wordy, Wacky World View,” Orlando Sentinel , March 17, 1996.

216 “brashly funny and genuinely moving,” from Bruce Allen, “Future Imperfect,” Chicago Tribune , March 24, 1996.

216 “the funniest writer of his generation,” from Jonathan Dee, “Infinite Fest,” The Village Voice, March 1996.

216 “Next year’s book awards,” from Walter Kirn, “Long Hot Novel,” New York, February 12, 1996.

216 “that sneery thing in Esquire,” from a letter to David Markson, November 28, 1995.

216 “Hype of the Huge,” from Will Blythe, Esquire , December 1995.

216 “I’m very happy with the launch,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch to Bonnie Nadell, January 23, 1996.

217 “The overall effect,” from Jay McInerney, “Infinite Jest,” New York Times Book Review, March 3, 1996.

217 “The book seems to have been written,” from Michiko Kakutani, “A Country Dying of Laughter. In 1,079 Pages,” New York Times , February 3, 1996.

218 “To say that,” from Birkerts, “The Alchemist’s Retort.”

218 “This is sort of what it’s like to be alive,” quoted in Mark Caro, “The Next Big Thing,” Chicago Tribune , February 23, 1996.

219 “Sauron’s great red eye,” from a postcard to Don DeLillo, August 21, 2001.

219 “a whole wall of letters that help me or are important,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, March 16, [1996].

219 “I went with friends,” from David Gates, “Levity’s Rainbow,” Newsweek , February 12, 1996.

220 “They pretend they’re kissing you,” from Frank Bruni, “The Grunge American Novel,” New York Times Magazine, March 24, 1996.

220 “or the Illinois version,” from Valerie Stivers, “The Jester Holds Court,” stim.com, May 1996.

221 “there’s a way that it seems to me,” from an appearance on The Charlie Rose Show , March 27, 1997.

221 “When I was younger,” from the Scocca interview.

222 “not a hip downtown kind of book,” from a letter by Bonnie Nadell to Beth Davey, November 3, 1995.

222 “I think I made it a project not to look,” from Lipsky, Although of Course , at 178.

223 “packed and scary,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, circa March 16, 1996.

224 “you guys made your bones,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, circa March 16, 1996.

224 “brain fart,” from Lipsky, Although of Course, at 98.

224 “a serious asshole,” reading “‘I’ve Cheated,’” from Lipsky, Although of Course, at 99.

225 “It reminds me of the exhilaration,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, April 18, 1996.

225 I…tried my best to tell the truth,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, circa March 16, 1996.

226 “WAY MORE FUSS,” from a letter to JT Jackson, circa April 1996.

Chapter 7: “Roars and Hisses”

227 “weird warm full,” from Lipsky, Although of Course , at 283.

227 “lumber salesm[e]n and Xerox,” from a letter to Alice Turner, December 11, 1995.

227 “The Icky Brothers,” from a letter to a friend, December 28, 1997.

227 “horses in the yard,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, March 16, 1996.

227 “Mostly I try to remember,” from a letter to David Markson, June 24, 1996.

227, 228 “spasms-trips” and “the lump,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, April 10, 1996.

228 “make extra room,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, June 25, 1997.

228 “basically an enormous,” from an appearance on The Charlie Rose Show , March 27, 1997.

228 “passionate and deeply serious,” from Brigitte Frase, “A Writer Flails His Way Toward Honesty,” San Francisco Chronicle , March 9, 1997.

228 “eager to notate,” from James Wood, review of “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” Newsday , 1989.

229 “reveals Mr. Wallace,” from Laura Miller, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” New York Times , March 16, 1997.

229 “Here’s why I’m embarrassed,” from an interview with Charlie Rose, March 27, 1997.

230 “I mean, can you see,” from a letter to a friend, June 27, 1998.

230 “blissfully ignorant of,” from a letter to Alice Turner, December 11, 1995.

231 “I find myself,” from an interview with Charlie Rose, March 27, 1997.

232 “literally crazy,” from a letter to a friend, December 28, 1997.

232 “fetish for conquering,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, February 19, 1995.

232 “I’ve wanted a black room,” from a letter to Brad Morrow, November 24, 1996.

233 “Real isn’t how,” from Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit (Doubleday, 1958) at 5.

233 “serial high-romance,” from a letter to Rich C., August 24, 2000.

233 “and come close,” from a letter to a friend, December 28, 1997.

234 “tuggy stuff” and “the people selling,” from a letter to a friend, December 3, 1997.

234 “This living hand,” from “This living hand, now warm and capable,” John Keats, Selected Poems (Penguin Classics, 2007) at 237.

235 “writing is going,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, September 7, 1996.

235 “weird little 1-pagers,” from a letter to Brad Morrow, November 11, 1996.

235 “the spiritual emptiness,” from the Stein interview.

235 “jejune,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, September 10, 1995.

236 “The novel is a fucking killer,” quoted in a letter to Don DeLillo, September 19, 1995.

236 “Maybe what I want,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, October 10, 1995.

236 “All right, your first book,” from a letter by Don DeLillo, November 6, 1995.

237 “I’m gearing up,” from a note to Steven Moore, January 13, 1997.

238 “A weird lightning-bolt,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, September 11, 1996.

238 “which means I can take,” from a letter to Steven Moore, October 8, 1996.

238 “basically to have projected,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, May 20, 1997.

239 “nothing if not,” from a letter to Rich C., August 24, 2000.

239 “the blow-jobs the culture gives,” from a letter to David Markson, June 24, 1996.

239 “I am getting some writing,” from a letter to Steven Moore, September 16, 1997.

240 “the version of myself,” “a mask,” “obliterated or something,” “slightest mistake or miscue,” and “the date of the erection/unveiling,” from a letter to a friend, December 3, 1997.

240 “I think I’m very honest,” from a letter to Elizabeth Wurtzel, April 1, 1995.

242 “15 minutes are over,” from a letter to Steven Moore, October 8, 1996.

243 “paw at the reader’s ear,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, January 19, 1997.

244 “It makes me,” from a letter to Alex Pugsley, May 15, 1998.

244 “Writing about real-life,” from a letter to a friend, January 17, 1998.

245 “three days in Bosch’s hell-panel,” from a postcard to Don DeLillo, January 30, 1998.

245 “I don’t think,” from a postcard to Jonathan Franzen, January 10, 1998.

245 “particularly dark,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, August 17, 1998.

245 “late 90s notoriety,” from a letter to Bonnie Nadell, August 29, 1998.

246 “Do I,” from a letter to Bonnie Nadell, August 29, 1998.

247 “a parody (a feminist parody),” from a note to Andrew Parker, April 20, 1998.

247 “I see that Hal,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, February 6, 1997.

248 “I feel pretty good,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, August 17, 1998.