Michelle Dean

“There is something a little vulgar about writing a novel that is too close to the present, too concerned with current events, too eager to critique technological advancements.”

“The alienated man lashing out at society is a trope that popular culture loves to explore.”

“The children of the 1980s were the last before a lot of things changed. We were the last generation not to have cell phones, not to have video games, not to have parents who worried if we strayed from the yard.”

“When James Frey's 'A Million Little Pieces' turned out to be largely bunk, critics everywhere secretly rejoiced. They knew it, they said.”

“Articulateness is not the only way that intelligence manifests itself.”

“Bad criticism recites rote arguments. The shame of rote arguments isn't just that they're cliches, though they are, but that they tend to hide from us why a critic is actually thinking what they're thinking.”

“Poems are ideally suited, in some ways, to social media because they pack so much meaning into so little language.”

“'Millennials' has become a kind of modern swearword, a slur directed at people in their early 20s.”

“The diversity of perspective, the unwillingness to generalise - those are good traits in countries as they are in art.”

“I've come, even as a feminist, to dread the phrase 'female friendship,' because it tends to signal overdetermined relationships.”

“The 'beach read' has become such a ubiquitous concept in contemporary literature that we assume it has always been around. In fact, the term only emerged in the 1990s, usually in book trade publications such as 'Booklist' and 'Publisher's Weekly.'”

“Indeed, there has never been any sort of organised movement of people who take their cats into the outdoors. Of course, the navy often took them on ships, but there they performed a function, mousing for the officers.”

“Push the envelope too far as a female artist, and you may only earn an ocean of ink expressing concern for your delicate constitution, amounting to a caution against playing on traditionally male wavelengths.”

“There are many things to like about 'Mr. Robot,' the most ephemeral and yet memorable of them being the opening credits.”

“The real discovery of having your consciousness raised was never that you'd be handed tools; it was the discovery that the only real leverage you get in life is yourself.”

“In an age where television is viewed as the best medium to 'tell stories,' narrative often stands in for substance on would-be prestige shows.”

“Research can be a boon to a novelist - there are more things in heaven and Earth than can be dreamt of in a single writer's philosophy - or it can become a hindrance, a thick layer of algae that weighs down the storytelling.”

“Mass market paperback thrillers are a dime a dozen. The trick is to find something that actually sticks to the ribs.”

“It's become a cliche to say that a piece of drama is about 'the nature of truth.' But 'Rectify' so openly plays with the slippery nature of memory that the label directly applies.”

“Among journalists, there is a saying: 'If it bleeds, it leads.' This can result in some serious hustling - and some serious sloppiness - whenever a crime occurs. The public's longing to see and hear salacious details is, basically, endless.”