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.

I get to a certain point, and I think in a novel it's about the third draft, when I want other eyes on it.

I just like doing it, I like writing.

There's the belief that we can't be smart enough to write. And certainly censorship of women, too.

We have to give our poor, innocent, and undeserving-of-our-badness characters trouble in order to make them characters in a story.

Sometimes people want to know how to write a story from the point of view of a murderer and make her sympathetic. I think the answer is that you start by having her look for her car keys, because everybody knows what it's like.

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.