The question any novel is really trying to answer is, Is life worth living?

When I first wanted to be a writer, I learned to write prose by reading poetry.

The question any novel is really trying to answer is, Is life worth living?

Updike was the first to take the penile sensorium under the wing of elaborate metaphorical prose.

I keep thinking I'll enjoy suspense novels, and sometimes I do. I've read about 20 Dick Francis novels.

Of course, individuals are responsible for individual actions - the pilots who flew over Pearl Harbor and dropped bombs on those ships did a terrible thing as part of an attack on a military base.

In fact, you could make the argument that a historian like Shlomo Aronson does in passing in one of his books, that the bombing campaign united the German nation behind Hitler, and actually contributed to the sustaining of his power.