Hey, this is the moment I'm Brian Cobbleman, thanks for listening.

My guest today does not know the impact that he's had on my life.

He couldn't know, but my guest is Paul Oster, who has just written a really special book

on the author of Stephen Crane called Burning Boy.

But Paul, man, I catalog, I'm one of these annoying people who kind of makes listen catalogs

things, and I always know my favorite rock band of any period, and I know my favorite

writer of any period.

And before I became a writer, you were pretty much the main, you were pretty much the person

I read in my 20s to figure out how to become a writer.

Wow.

Well, I don't know what to say.

I hope I didn't lead you too far astray.

You know, of course, you're fucking dead, but it was worth it.

And I say that with no, really no hyperbole, I was thinking about it and talking to my wife

Amy's also novelist and filmmaker.

And you know, we've actually had on our front door the whole time we were raising our kids,

Amy had put in your quote about what might fix this monstrosity of a life on our door

for a really long time, like for 15 years when our kids were little.

Like cool.

Yeah.

I can tell you it's beautiful, what you said.

And this was really, as our children were raised, and it's in that the world is monstrous,

...