Howard Mittelmark

“I have known some horses and a good many more pigs who I believe harbored evil intent in their hearts. I will go further and say all cats are wicked, though often useful. Who has not seen Satan in their sly faces?”
― Charles Portis

“Examining the actual contents of my crying, I found a quailing sludge emotion, with a foul insecticide taste. If it was a peanut, you would spit it out. Yet I was indulging this toxic goo, giving it its head and letting it dictate my actions. People had every good reason to despise me. ”
― Sandra Newman, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done: A Novel – Identity, Inheritance, and Family Secrets

“That sense of the world being the lack of something dogged him for years, and when it stopped dogging him, he felt unmoored. ”
― Sandra Newman, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done: A Novel – Identity, Inheritance, and Family Secrets

“He says nothing, vehemently. I falter away and we sit, mutually staring into the fouled water. ...


With time to kill, I ponder dismally the possible derivation of the zombie myth from people like my boyfriend. I picture Ralph blackened, semi-fingered, with bright bone peeking through his flesh. The odd small worm clings, festively wiggling. In my image, Ralph's really upset about decaying, and I feel for him sorrowfully. I want to tell him I would still love him, if he were decomposed. Of course in practice there is no predicting what I'd feel, and besides which, it's a wild associative leap.


I ponder dismally how I've alienated people, all my life, with my bizarre associative leaps. ”
― Sandra Newman, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done: A Novel – Identity, Inheritance, and Family Secrets