I agree with the Lev Tolstoy quote completely, but I also feel like there's more to it. What is a happy family and an unhappy family? We're probably both of those things at the same time.

But this is exactly why I read--and don't belong to a book group--because reading is the most individual thing there is. Why collectivize it? Didn't we have enough bad English teachers in school? Crowd sourcing and literature shouldn't mix.

Like no other writer in contemporary American literature, Brock Clarke has a way of looking at us, I mean looking straight at us--warts, lots of warts, and beauty and hypocrisy and love, too, the gamut. And hes done it again in this brilliant The Happiest People in the World, a novel that is as hilarious and thought-provoking as it is ultimately, deadly, deadly serious. I for one am grateful hes out there--watching our every move.

I revise and revise and revise. I'm not even sure "revise" is the right word. I work a story almost to death before it's done.

I'm pretty tight - I rewrite, in some cases, 70 to 80 times before I show it to people.

I think anything we do - eating, walking down the street, online shopping - gives you another perspective on writing stories.

I agonize over things like this - the order of things, section titles, all this architectural sort of stuff. Takes me years to figure out.