I just like doing it, I like writing.

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

For some people, it's very easy to be spontaneous and they can pour out the most wonderful stuff. But it's really hard to exert control over it, to think, 'Well, this could be different. This could go in the opposite order, there could be more here and less there.' For other people, it's much easier to have rules and a methodology, but much harder to let loose and allow their feelings to come pouring out on the page. They're more shy or they're just more distant from their emotions. I think everybody starts with one or the other.

I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts.

You may be somebody who writes best for a small press that doesn't pay very well, but you might have a fascinating and intricate style that might not appeal to as many readers but will be incredibly meaningful to the readers you have. Truly, that's as wonderful if not more wonderful.

We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think.

Sometimes it's interesting to see what people who have too much control need to do to write freely.