You gotta find someone who says something like the following interesting:

I find almost every novel overwritten and padded. I mean, almost every novel over three-hundred pages, I find, I would have edited—a little bit. I don’t like artificial devices pulling you through [novels] like a dead body on the first page… and hit hasn’t changed much from the nineteenth-century, when you’ve got just about something like a dead body on the first page of every bestseller you’ve got… or a dead body with no face, or a nun! I get tired of what sells, that way. I’m not interested in that, usually. I think novel, uh, literature, should keep you turning the page because it is just giving you more available reality, and the best that you can imagine.

Now, as an SF guy, I may disagree with this philosophy to some degree, but I also respect this Barry Hannah guy. I certainly think listening to the readings and interviews available on this site are worth listening to. Thanks for the heads-up, John Wendel.