The themes of the short stories selected in the anthology Insights include ethnic conflict, gender bias, violence, man-woman relationship, the central character in conflict with established social values, personal trauma, spiritual quest, etc. Insights features stories of a great variety. Several of the authors included in Insights reveal in their short stories the impact of John Collier's "Bottle Party"(1939), Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover" (1941), Saki's "Tobermory" (1911), Isak Dinesen's "The Sailor-Boy's Tale" (1942), E. B. White's "The Door" (1939), E. M. Forster's "The Celestial Omnibus" (1908), Nadine Gordimer's "Termitary" ( 1974), Hemingway's "In Another Country" (1927), Margaret Atwood's "Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother" (1983), Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" ( 1931), Katherine Anne Porter's "Flowering Judas" (1930), Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" (1953), Arthur Schnitzler's "Fate of the Baron" (1923), Mary McCarthy's "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt" (1941). Best short stories "can be read in an hour and remembered for a lifetime' (Benet). Short-story seems to be an ideal genre for the 21st century afflicted with "a stressful mix of rat race and numbing routine".