All art is autobiographical. When a work of art pleases us it is often because it recounts for us an experience close to our own, something we can recognize. Instinctively, we want either lies that we can know as lies, or truth that we can know as truth. But the two are hopelessly mixed together, mysteriously confused. Nothing human is simple.
Every person dreams, and every dreamer is a kind of artist.
The formal artist is one who arranges his dreams into a shape that can be experienced by other people. It is a revelation. This collection of contemporary American short fiction has been put together for use in college classrooms, but hopefully its interest will be more general. It concludes with strange stories that call attention to themselves as artificial constructions, daring us to believe in them. Most of the stories in this collection are moving, in their separate ways.