The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope to be morally good, but it is not considered moral if the highest values of a society are adherence to rules and traditional mores, the maintenance of hierarchical relationships, and absolute ideas of right and wrong. Any society based on the latter will find novels inherently immoral and subversive.

But what truly horsey girls discover in the end is that boyfriends, husbands, children, and careers are the substitute-for horses

Horse racing is really much more intimidating than anything having to do with literature. When I had horses at the racetrack, I would wake up in terror in a way that I would never wake up while working on a novel.

Charles Dickens was an avid seeker of names - he read directories and looked for odd names on gravestones.

Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.

People are quite frequently eccentric.

The desire to write a novel is the single required prerequisite for writing a novel.