They were all in their early thirties. An age at which it is sometimes hard to admit that what you are living is your life.

There's a kind of tension that if I'm getting a story right I can feel right away, and I don't feel that when I try to write a novel. I kind of want a moment that's explosive, and I want everything gathered into that.

What she wants to do if she can get the time to do it, is not so much to live in the past as to open it up and get one good look at it".

There were people whom you positively ached to please. If you failed with such people they would put you into a category in their minds where they could kee you and have contempt for you forever.

In twenty years I've never had a day when I didn't have to think about someone else's needs. And this means the writing has to be fitted around it.

Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.

I would really hope this would make people see the short story as an important art, not just something you played around with until you got a novel.