Chris asked Amor Towles:

What persuaded you to use an "Em dash" before dialogue in "The Rules of Civility?" I've worked with editors who would fall over dead at such a departure from orthodoxy. Also, thank you for sharing the story of your 7 year literary project - truly a source of inspiration to any author facing adversity. At what point in writing and editing "Rules" did you sell the manuscript?

Amor Towles I actually began writing the book with quotation marks, but after 50 pages, I scrapped them. Principally, I did so because they were bugging me. Quotation marks (true to their purpose) were letting me insert little parenthetical observations or characterizations in the middle of dialogue:

“I knew your father well,” he said soberly, “back in the early days of the war...”

“Yes,” she said smoothing her skirt, “another cup of tea would be lovely...”  

By scrapping the quotation marks, I was forced to abandon these little clarifications and modifications and write conversation in such a way that the dialogue would do most of the work on its own.

Having said all that, I am far from the first to use them. They are standard in friction fiction; and used by James Joyce and Cormac McCarthy among others.
Best,
AT

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