Life is good, no matter how unlucky you are
INTERVIEWER
... What does age do to a writer?
MAXWELL
I think it makes you more serious. It makes you more aware of other people’s lives. You see more from the inside: the troubles, the sorrow, and the unfairness. And then when you accept the idea that life is good, no matter how unlucky you are, you get a firmer insight into it.
—Writer and editor William Maxwell, interviewed by John Seabrook. "The Art of Fiction, No. 71" in The Paris Review, No. 85, Fall 1985.