My books are elegiac in the sense that they're odes to a nation that even I sometimes think may not exist anymore except in my memory and my imagination.

I suppose all writers worry about the well running dry.

Ultimately, your theme will find you. You don't have to go looking for it.

I've never written nearly as much about place as people seem to think I do. I just write about class.

Who but an English professor would threaten to kill a duck a day and hold up a goose as an example?

You can be interested in a Jane Smiley novel whether or not anyone says a word. She enters into her characters thoughts with great understanding and depth.

To his surprise, she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, a kiss so full of affection that it dispelled the awkwardness, even as it caused Miles' heart to plummet, because all kisses are calibrated, and this one revealed the great chasm between affection and love.