I started writing by doing small related things but not the thing itself, circling it and getting closer. I had no idea how to write fiction. So I did journalism because there were rules I could learn. You can teach someone to write a news story. They might not write a great one, but you can teach that pretty easily.

Obviously, in journalism, you're confined to what happens. And the tendency to embellish, to mythologize, it's in us. It makes things more interesting, a closer call. But journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one.

I wanted to be a veterinarian, but slipped up when I hit organic chemistry.

I assemble stories-me and a hundred million other people-at the sentence level. Not by coming up with a sweeping story line.

if it's true your life flashes past your eyes before you die, then it is also the truth that your life rushes forth when you are ready to start to truly be alive.

Dreams: the place most of us get what we need.

consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless.