Inevitably we start by thinking that if our work is any good, we'll get money. It's as we would if you started up a business or if you work in another profession.

Writers sometimes are paid a great deal of money, but much more frequently they're not paid or are paid only a little bit.

Inevitably we start by thinking that if our work is any good, we'll get money. It's as we would if you started up a business or if you work in another profession.

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

I don't really like to tell people to get out drugs.

I remember I had had one woman who had three or four kids, and some of them were having problems. I said, 'Maybe you could go write somewhere else, away from your house.' And sure enough, all kinds of wonderful stuff emerged. She was keeping too much charge of herself because she couldn't stop being a mother when she was in the house. You have to find your own way of letting loose, if you're one of those people.

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.