“America is not a country where the small gesture goes noticed. We’re not a country like France, where charm, something light or effervescent, can survive. We want everything you have, and we want it as fast as you can turn it out…. I read in an interview with Frank Sinatra, in which he said about Judy Garland, "Every time she sings, she dies a little. That’s how much she gave.” It’s true for writers, too, who hope to create something lasting. They die a little getting it right. And then the book comes out, and there’s a dinner, maybe they give you a prize, and then comes the inevitable and very American question: what’s next? But the next thing can be so hard… because now you know what it demands.“
