In what we think of as bad dialogue, the characters talk directly to each other.

...is this not in fact the purpose of young Americans going abroad? To make them think of things they never thought of?

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it.

Women have the feeling that since they didn't make the rules, the rules have nothing to do with them.

In what we think of as bad dialogue, the characters talk directly to each other.

The Novelist, afraid his ideas may be foolish, slyly puts them in the mouth of some other fool and reserves the right to disavow them.

The whole process of writing a novel is having this great, beautiful idea and then spoiling it.