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.

Any essayist setting out on a frail apparatus of notings and jottings is a brave person.

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. A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.

Not having to own a car has made me realize what a waste of time the automobile is.

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