“It's jarring to live in a world where every person feels his life will...” — J. D. Vance Quote

It's jarring to live in a world where every person feels his life will only get better when you came from a world where many rightfully believe that things have become worse. And I've suspected that this optimism blinds many in Silicon Valley to the real struggles in other parts of the country. So I decided to move home to Ohio.

I needed a lot of the good things that church provided. But as I grew older, it became increasingly hard for me to rationalize the importance of church in my life with the beliefs that it required that were at odds with modern science.

I never wanted to be a public intellectual or a talking head.

We spend our way to the poorhouse. We buy giant TVs and iPads. Our children wear nice clothes thanks to high-interest credit cards and payday loans. We purchase homes we don't need, refinance them for more spending money, and declare bankruptcy, often leaving them full of garbage in our wake. Thrift is inimical to our being.

Envy blinds men and makes it impossible for them to think clearly.

It can be very dark. I turn the phone off and put the blinds down. I do pre-record some good programs and I have my dog and I get myself through it that way. I don't want to be sounding kind of negative but it is a different kind of Christmas, that's all.

A girl once came to my beery flat in Kensal Green, opened the blinds and cooked me breakfast. I married her.

Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice?

We writers are shy, nocturnal creatures. Push us into the light and the light blinds us.