Anecdotes in Fiction

Little nuggets of economy and compression, interpolated stories--anecdotes that one character tells another within the body of a narrative--change the pace of that narrative and illuminate a character who is revealed by the content of the story, by the manner of its telling, and finally by what the reader concludes about the purpose that the anecdote is intended to serve. [Most readers, I suspect, could do without these often boring and pretentious breaks in the story.]

Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer, 2006