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

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

Laughter is the jam on the toast of life. It adds flavor, keeps it from being too dry, and makes it easier to swallow.

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

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.

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.

A chaplain's biggest gift is to be present and just listen.