Brian Dillon

Imagine a type of writing so hard to define its very name should be something like: an effort, an attempt, a trial.

Michael Hamburger: ‘but the essay is not a form, has no form; it is a game that creates its own rules

makes it sound as though all I care for is style, that old-fashioned thin

have no clue how to write about the essay as a stable entity or established clas

please do not call it ‘creative nonfiction’)

to hide a good deal both about essays and about the nature of effort and experimen

what is familiarly known is not properly known at all

other words, the essay is first of all a type of measurement or judgement

push out, to chase, then to demand

essayists are sometimes ashamed to be essayists)