Calloway: Nora, I'd like the first chapter to show my humble beginnings.
Nora: Of course. Tell me about your childhood.
Calloway: Humble. Very humble.
Nora: Where did you grow up?
Calloway: In a house in the country.
Nora: How big was the house?
Calloway: Modest. Twenty-two rooms.
Nora: Twenty-two?
Calloway: It had two floors. And a lake.
Nora: And your parents?
Calloway: Hard-working. My father worked in the family bank.
Nora: Your family owns the bank.
Calloway: The point is that he worked in it.
Nora: I see. Could I describe the house as "unpretentious"?
Calloway: Perfect.
Nora: And the lake?
Calloway: Let's call it "a pond".
Nora: Mr Calloway, I can write a memoir that is elegant, persuasive and generous to you. But I cannot write that you were poor.
Calloway: I never said poor. I said humble.
Nora: Then let's make it honest. A rich boy who learned to be humble is a better story than a poor boy who never was.
Calloway: Hmm. Write that one.
Fiction note: All people, places and events in this dialogue are fictional.