My needs were simple I didn't bother much with themes or felicitous phrases and skipped fine descriptions of weather, landscapes and interiors. I wanted characters I could believe in, and I wanted to be made curious about what was to happen to them. Generally, I preferred people to be falling in and out of love, but I didn't mind so much if they tried their hand at something else. It was vulgar to want it, but I liked someone to say 'Marry me' by the end.

...falling in love could be achieved in a single word—a glance.

Shall there be womanly times? Or shall we die?

Writers are said to have superstitions and little rituals. Readers have them too.

Narrative tension is primarily about withholding information.

I was the basest of readers. All I wanted was my own world, and myself in it, given back to me in artful shapes and accessible form.

But what really happened? The answer is simple: the lovers survive and flourish.