Mom (seeing me making slides): “Again?”
Me: “So?”
Mom: “Why not try writing for a change?”
Me: “Excuse me, this is my slide journal.”
Mom: “I mean writing a paper.”
Me: “Ugh! Who even uses that word?”
Mom: “I see a lot of white. Where does the writing come in?”
—Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, ch. 12