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

I've been astonished how often, when I convince a writer to tell a story more straightforwardly and to tell it more simply and directly, it turns out that this author is great and the story is wonderful.

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

There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.

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

I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person.

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.