"This was an interview I gave sort of over the shoulder. I was having a conversation, in French, with a colleague while this young woman was doing this interview. So these were very much tossed-off remarks."

"This is what comes out of my mouth when I don't have time to filter myself. Had I been paying attention to the young woman I'd agreed to let interview me, I surely would have pretended not to be such an assface."

Also:

I think anybody who teaches Truman Capote cannot be attacked for being an anti-anything.

I'm just gonna let that one stand on its own.

And this is a young woman who kind of wanted to make a little name for herself, or something, because when I said “real heterosexual guys” I’m talking about Scott Fitzgerald [and] Scott Fitzgerald was not what you’d call a real guy’s guy, a real heterosexual guy. Part of Scott Fitzgerald’s charm is in his feminine sensibility. But then this noise happened.

"How dare this uppity little lady report the words I actually said!"

I liked this response: [link]

Truman Capote was many things. A "real heterosexual guy" was not one of them.

Snerk.

I think that was his point though--if he teaches Truman Capote, of all people, SURELY he is not a bad person! Because only a good person would deign to teach a writer like THAT.

I would be willing to bet just about anything that the Capote work he teaches is In Cold Blood.

Hmm.... why? Is In Cold Blood somehow less gay? I'm confused by that comment.

Ok, just read Eleanor and Park. SO GOOD! But the ending made me want to cry. I mean, the whole book kind of did. But in a good way too.

I know. Me too. I wonder if the quasi ambiguity of the ending would drive my students batty?

I finished Please Ignore Vera Dietz (which everyone should read right now), and will be going back to Eleanor and Park later tonight. I needed some fluffy Project Runway in between.