neal stephenson has suggested that while any definition will be simplistic there is today a general cultural difference between literary and genre fiction. on the one hand literary authors nowadays are frequently supported by patronage, with employment at a university or a similar institution, and with the continuation of such positions determined not by book sales but by critical acclaim by other established literary authors and critics. on the other hand, he suggests, genre fiction writers tend to support themselves by book sales. however, in an interview, john updike lamented that "the category of 'literary fiction' has sprung up recently to torment people like me who just set out to write books, and if anybody wanted to read them, terrific, the more the merrier. ... i'm a genre writer of a sort. i write literary fiction, which is like spy fiction or chick lit". likewise, on "the charlie rose show", he argued that this term, when applied to his work, greatly limited him and his expectations of what might come of his writing, so he does not really like it. he suggested that all his works are literary, simply because "they are written in words".