In the following essay, Campbell discusses the "several varieties of emotion existing under the single rubric of love" in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love."

Readers often complain that nothing happens in stories like "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." Two couples in this story—Mel and Terri McGinnis and Nick and Laura—sit around a table, drinking gin and talking about love. Several varieties of emotion, existing under the single rubric of love, enter into the conversation either in passing or at length—spiritual love, carnal love, chivalric love, idealized devotion, and even the sort of complex torment that exhibits itself in abuse, often murder, and sometimes suicide. Mel the cardiologist does most of the talking, and much of that about Terri's former lover, Ed, who abused her, threatened murder, and finally succeeded on his second attempt...