Women have the feeling that since they didn't make the rules, the rules have nothing to do with them.
Diane Johnson...is this not in fact the purpose of young Americans going abroad? To make them think of things they never thought of?
Diane JohnsonAny essayist setting out on a frail apparatus of notings and jottings is a brave person.
Diane JohnsonBut 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.
Diane Johnson