To write a book in which every sentence is a first sentence. To write a book in which every sentence is as good as the first sentence.

READ THE SMALL FONT FIRST.

“To live as if every day were your first,” “to live as if every day were your last”— conditionally.

READ THE LARGE FONT LAST.

To begin with sex.

DO NOT BE DISTRACTED.

To begin with loss.

DO NOT BE DIVERTED.

To begin with death.

THERE IS NOTHING TO READ HERE.

To begin with the end.

YOU ARE STILL WASTING YOUR TIME.

Joshua Cohen was born in New Jersey in 1980. He is the author of three novels – Witz, Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto, and A Heaven of Others – and a collection of short fiction, Four New Messages. His writing has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, the London Review of Books, the New York Times, the Paris Review, and elsewhere. Cohen lives in New York City.