If one publishes, then one is creating a public record of Learning to Write.

If one publishes, then one is creating a public record of Learning to Write.

You know, as fiction writers, if our instincts are off, we can't pay our bills.

Women now were told not to settle for second best, told that they deserved better, but at a time, it seemed, when there was so much less to go around.

Pleasantness was the machismo of the Midwest. There was something athletic about it. You flexed your face into a smile and let it hover there like the dare of a cat.

People love gossip because it's slightly removed from actuality. It's a very literary thing... You can hear a great story, and it turns out that it's largely not true. Fiction writing is like gossip. It's not malicious gossip, but it's gossip.

Sometimes I ask myself if writing novels is even respectable.