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

Little children are all writers.

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.

I think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves.

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

The main thing is to explain to yourself that everybody suffers.

I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.