Last spring, about this time, I heard Jonathan Safran Foer speak at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing. As I read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, I keep thinking of one of his thoughts in particular.

[Sorry for the paraphrase, Jonathan– even with your thoughtful pace, I couldn’t write fast enough for a direct quote.]

When I was younger, I thought I’d spend my life writing a mountain of words– that I’d write sentences and I’d pile them up until I could climb up and see something from the top of them. Instead, I find it’s like my sentences are filling holes. I write sentences and dump them in these holes. Then I can walk across.