Telling someone to be confident in the abstract is not going to make it easier for the unconfident writer to actually get herself or himself to the point of being able to put in the upsetting stuff.

Somehow we have to detach from feeling as though money is a quick and easy standard by which we can gauge how well we're doing.

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

Teaching is very important to me, and it has become more important as I get older.

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.

I don't think a white person can write accurately and convincingly about what black people experience of oppression.

If you have a character stand up and put on her shoes and open the door, in order to do that, you're imagining her shoes and her clothes and her house and her door. The character becomes more real. But once you've done that, you can probably just get it all across with a couple of details.