Back when I first read Steve Almond, (upon the release of a Tin House Anthology) I was inspired to do my first set of Dogeared Pages blog posts. Well, upon reading Steve’s Rock and Roll will Save Your Life, I find myself inspired to post from my dogeared pages once again. Prepare to find pleasure. Words that hit it. Hard. Steady.

“Here’s a little secret, between you, me, and the rest of the mall: buying shit isn’t enough. What we wish for in our secret hearts is self-expression, the chance to reveal ourselves and to be loved for this revelation, devoured by love.” (10)

“Literature can and should aspire to a musical condition…. How unafraid musicians were, the tremendous passionate rights they granted themselves. Forget exposition, backstory, the polite accretion of detail. They were in it for the impact. They wanted to fuck their fans up.” (118)

“All language began in song and… the best stories inevitably return to song, to a state of rapture. For years, I had assumed that throwing beautiful words at the page would make my prose feel true. But I had the process exactly backward. It was truth that lifted the language into beauty and toward song.” (119)

“This is what artists do, actually–as the pundits fizz away in their bright studios, narrating our civic fate like a form of athletic combat–they transcribe the individual heart seeking a collective conscience, a reason to believe.” (121)

Now, go here and listen to “Our Song.”

More to come…