A story conducted by the time of a clock and calendars alone would be a story not of human beings but of mechanical toys.

A clever girl may pass through the phase of foolish miss on the way to sensible woman.

As for Elizabeth Bennet, our chief reason for accepting her point of view as a reflection of her author's is the impression that she bears of sympathy between them--an impression of which almost every reader would be sensible, even if it had not the explicit confirmation of Jane Austen's letters. Yet, as she is presented to us in Pride and Prejudice, she is but a partial and sometimes perverse observer.

A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.

A short story I have written long ago would barge into my house in the middle of the night, shake me awake and shout, 'Hey,this is no time for sleeping! You can't forget me, there's still more to write!' Impelled by that voice, I would find myself writing a novel. In this sense, too, my short stories and novels connect inside me in a very natural, organic way.

Don't be afraid, child,
The stories are always there.