This is less teaching than damage control. You may as well paint a house that’s on fire.

The problem in this case was you can't be a middle-aged virgin in America without something being wrong with you. People can't conceive of a virtue in someone else that they can't conceive in themselves. Instead of believing you're stronger, it's so much easier to imagine you're weaker.

I can become someone else, not out of pressure and desperation, but merely because a new life sounds fun or interesting or joyful.

Every high school has its Romeo and Juliet, one tragic couple. So does every generation.

You ever wonder if Adam and Eve were just the puppies God dumped because they wouldn't house-train?

Books can create a depth of story, a background of information and ideas, that televison and movies can't. Sure, the television shows may shock, but only on a superficial level. They'd never risk market share to really explore the issues. They report, but don't analyze or suggest any new ways for living our lives.

A writer’s job is to cultivate what can go wrong.