What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.

The culture is with some rapidity fearing its imagination. I don't know why. Imagination is not of interest.

I enjoy going to campuses and reading and doing a class or teaching and then running away and not having to grade papers.

First-book novelists and storywriters haven't yet failed and so it's easier to publish them - you can gamble on a success. Whereas someone who has written four books that are highly literary and demanding and require you as a reader. They may not be republished.

Let's look at what the books are that are being produced. More and more they are being made like movies. To sell. They are being tested out.

People do not read, by and large. They watch television.

What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.