Female friendship was one-tenth prevention and nine-tenths cleanup.

I think I'm someone who can prattle on a long time about something, which serves me well as a novelist, but it's the enemy when I'm writing short stories.

I think the posture of confidence can serve you well. I'm not sure what's to be gained by sitting at your computer and beating yourself up.

I, the lone inhabitant of my body and life, am inescapably large to myself, but also ridiculously, inconceivably small.

If you get discouraged about a section of a novel, that can be more catastrophic than getting discouraged about an individual story.

Novels definitely come more naturally to me. When I write short stories, it's always a fight against it expanding.

With impeccable prose, dry wit, and uncommon wisdom, Ted Thompson brings to life one family's painful disappointments and powerful resilience. The Land of Steady Habits combines Austen's shrewd mastery of domestic economics with Updike's compassion for the melancholy commuter to make something elegant, fresh, and brilliant.