David Marchese

Do you think there are characters or real-life people for whom you couldn't generate that kind of empathy for?

epiphany you had where you saw the women clearing the rubble sort of opened your eyes a little bit to the dark side of capitalism, I guess.

And I wonder if your thinking or feeling about capitalism has been affected by the fact that you've now done so well.

I mean, as far as writers go, purely from a market perspective, you're doing very, very well.

Why do you refer to shareholder value as a fiction?

Yeah, sometimes the excuse is as simple as, it's easier.

Well, it does.

I think it also connects to a lot of the backlash against the censoriousness of the left.

There's the idea that young men in particular were like, they're just always finger wagging at everything.

I'm not interested in that.

You know, I saw recently you won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Foundation.

And in one of the

introductory speeches to your acceptance speech.

Get ready for this one.

You were referred to as the ultimate teacher of kindness and of craft.

And, you know, you're often...

positioned in terms of kindness and goodness, almost, I'm going to be a little hyperbolic here, but like almost as a kind of secular saint.

And, you know, your eyes just rolled.

I just wonder if we can complicate that a little bit.

Like, when do you struggle with kindness?