Sometimes I write well when I'm very upset.

I think we need to develop the courage to write from the viewpoint of people who may seem quite different from ourselves, who might have a different sexual orientation or a different race or a different ethnicity.

Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a long time how to do it.

There seems to be a tremendous desire among many people now to know authors and how they work, to know what's autobiographical and what isn't.

In many cultures, women are sometimes literally kept from learning to read or from going to school.

I find that I get very excited about what my students are up to and that I get to be the hurdle they need to jump over.

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.