I think Barack Obama had the right idea [on negotiations with enemies], and the bottom line is that of course there have to be conditions. But, of course it doesn't do us any good to not talk with our adversaries.
I love short stories. They're like small imploding universes. They are very tightly bound and controlled. I'd been wanting to write one for ages but just got tangled up in novels. The novel is the same in the sense that it is also a universe, but it explodes outwards with all that shrapnel going in several different directions. I don't see too much difference in the forms except for the fact that writing short stories is like sprinting rather than long-distance running.