The panelists discuss the brain of H. G. Wells, the infrastructure of a good old-fashioned American literary event, the six oaths of the virtuous child, our inevitable biological predisposition toward fiction, Ibsen and Loveborg, imaginary friends, and how to come out of the closet as a political writer. The discussion took place at the Believer Nighttime Event, part of the 2006 PEN World Voices Festival.