I've been very traditionally trained in the English language. Everything is half wrong on TV and radio, and that's what people pick up. It's not a bias, but the people who write for us most readily are, curiously enough, mystery writers. They are wonderful people to work with, and I think it's because they don't think they are writing the Great American Novel. They're writing a book to entertain people.
Poets are the most difficult, but they earn the least money.
A lot of people have found encouragement in writers' groups, including Joyce Carol Oates, who wrote an article for us on that subject. Hortense Calisher is one of my favorite writers in the world, with the finest command of language of almost anyone I ever read. I have quoted the title story in In the Absence of Angels innumerable times. The sin is not to try. I've not had that question in almost my whole life.