Status Updates From Mystery and Manners: Occasi...

"Ours is the first age in history which has asked the child what he would tolerate learning (...). No one asks the student if algebra pleases him or if he finds it satisfactory that some French verbs are irregular, but if he prefers Hersey to Hawthorne, his taste must prevail."

"Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction."

"...and because we are losing our customary manners, we are probably overly conscious of them; this seems to be a condition that produces writers."