Maybe we're stuck with who we are.

I get to a certain point, and I think in a novel it's about the third draft, when I want other eyes on it.

It's hard to say which of us is luckier, the ones who go through long periods when they can't write or the ones who can write pretty easily.

The main thing is to explain to yourself that everybody suffers.

I think a day in your life on which nothing bad happens may be a wonderful day, but it probably isn't going to be the basis of a story.

Sometimes people want to know how to write a story from the point of view of a murderer and make her sympathetic. I think the answer is that you start by having her look for her car keys, because everybody knows what it's like.

When I've taught writing to five, six, and seven year olds, it's not very different than talking to an adult writer. They're writers then, and when they get to be young teenagers they're not anymore. You might go and talk to them about writing, and they'll be very self-conscious or will have detached themselves from the group.