There are different types of readers. People draw lines at which three things intersect: the character, the author, and the reader.

There are different types of readers. People draw lines at which three things intersect: the character, the author, and the reader.

I think even with women who come across with a tough exterior, the interior is the same. I think you'll find this with women around the word: some women, because of their circumstances, are forced to be tougher, forced to cultivate tougher exteriors.

Nothing is easy in writing. I don't think for anyone. But dialogue is probably what comes most naturally to me.

I think ex-Soviet or Russian-Jewish women are tougher and that comes through. And if they are more pragmatic than the men, it's because they are obliged to be. They have all the female responsibilities and all the male responsibilities.

There are books like Darkness at Noon, which from the prose standpoint I don't think is a perfect book. It has flaws. But for its time, it was very politically courageous.

People everywhere feel differently at different times of their lives.