I've been reading William H Gass and the guy fashions his prose the way a poet would. He's so meticulous with the structure. A simple alliteration here, a series of adverbs there, a rhyme that comes out of nowhere. Finding a rhythm through sentence length. Really talented guy.

The world out the window shifted. Houselights streaked the snow. Like the urine of dogs by trees. Though it didn’t seem corrosive but lay lightly on top like something transparent—a diaphanous robe.

In the Heart of the Heart of the Country (William H Gass)

What a bleak, disgusting image honed into a beautiful bit of language. He's a cynic with the style of a romantic.

I dreamed my lips would drift down your back like a skiff on a river. I’d follow a vein with the point of my finger, hold your bare feet in my naked hands

In the Heart of the Heart of the Country (William H Gass)

If the author works at his work, the reader may also have to, whereas when a writer whiles away both time and words, the reader may relax and gently peruse.

Gaddis' The Recognitions (William Gass)

Many think that it is reviewing which needs to be reformed, but I believe the culprit is the species, which surrounds itself with lies, and calls the lies culture, the way squirrels build their nests of dead twigs and fallen leaves, then hide inside.

Gaddis' The Recognitions (William Gass)

One way or another you ... collect the plaudits of hands which might as well clap since they are otherwise empty

the same hacks who condemn, for a price also praise

Gaddis' The Recognitions (William Gass)

There’s no need for haste, the pages which lie ahead of you will lie ahead of you for as long as you like them to; it is perfectly all right if some things are at first unclear, and if there are references you don’t recognize; just go happily on; we don’t stay in bed all day, do we? just because we’ve mislaid our appointment calendar. No, we need to understand this book—enjoy its charm, its wit, its irony, its erudition, its sensuous embodiment—the way we understand a spouse we have lived with and listened to and loved for many years through all their nights. Persons deserving such devotion and instinctual appreciation are rare; rarer still are the works which are worth it.

Gaddis' The Recognitions (William Gass)

Great thread, thank you 🙏 I have such a bad memory it's hard to think offhand of lines that really affected me but I will be posting more here as I read them

In