Being part of a community of writers is huge. I really think that's why people go to MFA programs.

Anyone with an imagination can write about the day-to-day experiences of someone he or she is not.

I think you have to remember that writing is hard; my first editor used to say that to me.

The making of fiction takes literally what is suggested by our imagination.

Censorship is all around us, I don't think it's innate.

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.

Certainly children are being encouraged far more than they were seventy-five years ago and are more accepted as they are.