Hack fiction exploits curiosity without really satisfying it or making connections between it and anything else in the world.

His acting remains forever fixed in a time that never dates.

It is guaranteed to put all teeth on edge, including George Washington's, wherever they might be.

We are drawn to our television sets each April the way we are drawn to the scene of an accident.

Good fiction reveals feeling, refines events, locates importance and, though its methods are as mysterious as they are varied, intensifies the experience of living our own lives.