no, of course there are many writers and teachers i love.

some have never stopped making my mind quiver with awe and sing with surprise, some have dazzled my heart with the endless light of their words, some have made me squeal with laughter, and still some have stopped my breath with their sheer imagination.

but these are my true literary heroes. i mean the ones i would gawk at while trembling on the ground if they ever came 2 feet near me. the ones i would have a shrine to if i could possibly.

four of them are dead, and i'm in constant dread of at least one of the others dying any time soon.

cees nooteboom: who stunned me with "the following story" and who taught me to rethink the fairy tale with "in the dutch mountains."

james thurber: everyone knows how funny he is, but what i will always love him best for are "the white deer" and "the thirteen clocks". they have lewis carroll logic, fairy tale elegance, and an incomparable sensitivity to human absurdities.

professor nohrnberg: he taught me milton and spenser, and he's an unbelievable genius. i can hardly believe i have the good fortune to study with him. my ambition is to be good enough at what i do for people to take an interest to ask: "say, you're not half bad, who taught you?" and then i'll get to say: "james nohrnberg did!" [quotes]

louis macneice: i first learnt to read his poems when i was thirteen, but it was in his prose that i have come to love his vivid intelligence, wry scepticism (critical but not rancorous, without cruelty,) combined with a certain clear-eyed though subdued gaiety, and of course i admire his radio plays.

robert aickman: who could not be enthralled and disturbed by his masterly, strange stories?

a.s. byatt: for "possession" alone she would have had my unending devotion, but she went and wrote "the djinn in the nightingale's eye" on top of that. her criticism and essays are wise, graceful, meditative, rich, gently persuasive, and mind-watering.

parke muth: but of course: "il miglior fabbro". who taught me that the language of passion is sometimes also the language of art.

others whose words i love, have loved.