I suspect that he was a child who thought differently than his peers, who may have had serious conversations with grown-ups, who as a young person, like me, accepted being alone quite a lot. I think that this sort of person often becomes either a writer or a career criminal.

A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal.

When you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that's always in progress.

I used to tell my writing students that they must write the books they wished they could come upon - because then the books they hungered and thirsted for would exist.

Summer nearly does me in every year. It's too hot and the light is unforgiving and the days go on way too long.

If you always dreamed of writing a novel or a memoir, and you used to love to write, and were pretty good at it, will it break your heart if it turns out you never got around to it? If you wake up one day at eighty, will you feel nonchalant that something always took precedence over a daily commitment to discovering your creative spirit? If not--if this very thought fills you with regret--then what are you waiting for?

It was not facing what life dealt that made you crazy, but rather trying to set life straight where it was unstraightenable.