I was there, and heard that actual sentence being spoken. Isn’t that wild?

Jump to the photo (all the festival posts will share this feature) to recreate the moment for yourself. I spoke to Martin today and he was a gent, and furthermore was wearing a bicycle garter (modern and nonchalantly sporty) all through today’s superlative Editing Master Class with Dorothy Wickenden, Roger Angell, and the humbling Daniel Zalewski. Humbling because Zalewski’s description of his editing and collaboration process is instantly recognizable: It’s that of the great editors, great capital G great, editors to submit to gratefully, to emulate, and to follow. I’ve known one or two, and here was another sitting there explaining his greatness without being in the least stuck-up. (A word that cartoonist C. Covert Darbyshire suggested bringing back into the discourse when we were on the subway down to Barnes & Noble on Saturday.)

Anyway, Martin, who’d just finished the Saturday crossword with a satisfied snap of the downloaded paper, also carried a bicycle helmet. That’s good to know, because there’s a brain we’d be bereft without.