“A well-known writer got collared by a university student who asked, ''Do you think I could be a writer?'' ''Well,'' the writer said, ''I don't know. . . . Do you like sentences?'' The writer could see the student's amazement. Sentences? Do I like sentences? I am 20 years old and do I like sentences? If he had liked sentences, of course, he could begin, like a joyful painter I knew. I asked him how he came to be a painter. He said, ''I liked the smell of the paint.''”