He’s always really thorough with them and really interested in talking about writing and helping students become more efficient and more learned writers, so I really see a dedication to students.

He’s really mellow. Not mellow in a boring way. Mellow in his laid-back, comfortable with himself kind of way. You can learn a lot from that kind of personality type. He works really hard, but...

The students who I know who’ve taken his classes always say that he’s really engaging and very provocative and thoughtful and consciousness raising and those are things that are really important.

That’s something that’s sometimes missing from academia, that kind of an idea of an intellectual – someone who is literally in love with ideas.