But as my brother was doing his research for a book about my father, it became his opinion that the most influential anti-semitism my father encountered when he was growing up was from Jews, because his relatives were German Jews, and doctors.

Most of us dont live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented.

I have never been able to understand the complaint that a story is "depressing" because of its subject matter. What depresses me are stories that don't seem to know these things go on, or hide them in resolute chipperness; "witty stories," in which every problem is the occasion for a joke; "upbeat" stories that flog you with transcendence. Please. We're grown ups now.

Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't have much time for anything else.

Because I don't have to be careful of people's feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I'm teaching writing.

But as my brother was doing his research for a book about my father, it became his opinion that the most influential anti-semitism my father encountered when he was growing up was from Jews, because his relatives were German Jews, and doctors.

One of the last courses I taught was on the Russian short story, which I love.