Now i no longer believe that people's secrets are defined and communicable, or their feelings full-blown and easy to recognize.

For years and years I thought that stories were just practice, till I got time to write a novel.

The stories are not autobiographical, but they're personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I've learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.

I want my stories to move people ... to feel some kind of reward from the writing.

Pots can show malice, the patterns of linoleum can leer up at you, treachery is the other side of dailiness.

The deep, personal material of the latter half of your life is your children. You can write about your parents when they're gone, but your children are still going to be here, and you're going to want them to come and visit you in the nursing home.

The conversation of kisses. Subtle, engrossing, fearless, transforming.