I’m sure you get a lot of stories that are on the edge of something happening, but the writer doesn’t want to commit themselves, and so what they do is just write very nicely.—Roy Parvin

Home is an enormous concept. I always think of Carson McCullers saying, “I must go home periodically to renew my sense of horror.” I love that.—Lynn Freed, interviewed by Sarah Anne Johnson

I do think that there is a natural innate kindness and compassion in human beings. Most people find murder repugnant, for example. Most people find cruelty repugnant. Even though we are all cruel at times, we all are thoughtless at times. I think there is some natural goodness in us.—Thomas E. Kennedy

The kind of writing I’m talking about comes from a different place, where events serve, and amplify, and reveal character. If I had to define literary writing, I’d call it an honest look at the complicated human heart.—Ron Carlson, interviewed Susan McInnis

Issue #16 WA16$6.00