You want in all cases for the story to get through the writing.

So what about me? Would I always have to find a high horse? The moral relish, the rising above, the being in the right, which can make me flaunt my losses.

I read a book called The Art of Loving. A lot of things seemed clear while I was reading it but afterwards I went back to being more or less the same.

She was learning, quite late, what many people around her appeared to have known since childhood that life can be perfectly satisfying without major achievements.

Why is it a surprise to find that people other than ourselves are able to tell lies?

I would really hope this would make people see the short story as an important art, not just something you played around with until you got a novel.

Country manners. Even if somebody phones up to tell you your house is burning down, they ask first how you are.