Why I stopped breathing

If you say Stravinsky couldn't write music
If you hope Krishnaji Howlaji Ara could paint like Gainsborough
If you feel Sterne can't make a book coherent
If all you get from Proust is: 1.25 million words on 2,408 pages

Then I must reduce my life to
A narrow typeface, claustrophobic margins
Semi-colons, subordinate clauses
And stop breathing