There's nothing about interdependence that would keep somebody from making art.

I think that there is a bias in the current literary climate, which is not only very Western but very male.

It's a matter of whether you see the self as fundamentally in relationship to other selves or not - whether you see the boundary between self and the world as relatively permeable, which makes you "interdependent" (collectivist) in outlook, or relatively impermeable, which makes you "independent" (individualistic).

For students who are in the most creative group in America to somehow be presumed to be narrow is just completely meshugga.

The independents are the ones who tend to commit suicide. I'm not against this way of being in the world. Individuals have brought us many treasures. You can't just say that's a bad way of being in the world - it's not. But it's not everyone's way of being in the world.

I hate to generalize because there are always so many exceptions to any rule.

Anything is possible. A man is what he makes up his mind to be.