Tetragrammaton.

Tetragrammaton.

And now I don't want to make this whole thing about death.

But I just the thoughts of like, you know, which I'll repeat, but that comment my mother

had made as she was dying when, who's lifetime atheist and uh communist and didn't believe in

anything past this and i asked her are you afraid when she was kind of at the end and she said

she was curious and i thought well that was a good place to start with something you know and then you

sent me that beautiful poem um about uh that when we're not watching ourselves, maybe somebody else is watching us as we move through something else, you know.

And I loved your book, by the way. I have it right behind me here. It'll stay here now forever.

Thank you so much. I'm so glad you like it.

I thought it's beautifully architectured. And then, you know, in all ways, in all ways.

Are all stories good for the same reason?

I think they might be because I think you get to unleash the use of words into ideas,

trying to put the, as a writer, trying to put the best word in front of the other.

Some people are way better at it than others, you know, just to relate to well-known artists,

a writer named Dennis Johnson, who I think was one of the great American writers, wrote a short story called Jesus Son,

that is pretty well recognized as one of the great short stories.

And then more recently, I've been friendly with George Saunders, who's a wonderful combination of

words and science.

You know, I tried to sort of compete with them in emails.

It's like a joke.

It's like talking to a poet.

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