In any genuine piece of fiction, the plot is like the surface personality or external body of a human being; it serves to contain the subconscious and viscera of the story. The plot is something you “see” with your rational mind, but the unconscious and the viscera–what you can smell and feel without being able to define–are the deeper subjects of the story.

- Mary Gaitskill (reference? I don’t know. I found it in a word file on my harddrive entitled Writers Quotes).