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The Great Thing About A Short Story Is That It Doesn't Have To Trawl Through Someone's Whole Life; It Can Come In Glancingly From The Side.

The Idea Was To Focus On The Primal Drama Of Parenthood: The Way From Moment To Moment You Swing From Comforter To Tormentor, Just As Kids Simultaneously Light Up Our Lives And Drive Us Nuts. I Was Trying To Capture That Strange, Bipolar Quality Of Parenthood. For All That Being A Parent Is Normal Statistically, It's Not Normal Psychologically. It Produces Some Of The Most Extreme Emotions You'll Ever Have.

I Remember Manners, That's When People Are Scared To Make Other Persons Mad.

I Think It Would Be A Shame For Any Writer To Let Their Publishers In Any Way Corral Them Into A Single Genre.

Something We Do Know Is That Review Coverage Does Go To Male Authors More Than Women Authors. That's A Fact. I Think It's One Of Those Examples Of Unconscious Bias: If You Hire A Lot Of Male Journalists, They're More Likely To Pick Up The Latest Ian Mcewan Novel Than The Latest A.s. Byatt Novel.