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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I don't have the courage not to write all the time.