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

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

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.

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.

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

Glenda Adams has written a wicked and witty novel.