Should novels generally be 600 pages? No, they should not. Half of writing, maybe 3/4 of writing, is editing. This seems to be a thing that has not gotten through to them. It’s my impression that you could get rid of half of most of these books. These people are not good enough to be this long, but they’re apparently also not good enough to be shorter.

Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950) American journalist

Interview by Susannah McNeely, Ruminator Magazine (2005-08/09)