In a rough way the short story writer is to the novelist as a cabinetmaker is to a house carpenter.

We face up to awful things because we can't go around them, or forget them. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you say 'Yes, it happened, and there's nothing I can do about it,' the sooner you can get on with your own life. You've got children to bring up. So you've got to get over it. What we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things.

And I think that's important, to know how the water's gone over the dam before you start to describe it. It helps to have been over the dam yourself.

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

Change itself is what fascinates me. I am drawn, as a moth to the flame, by edge situations, by situations of metamorphosis.

Anyway, there's something wrong with everybody and it's up to you to know what you can handle.

All the travelin I ever done is going around the coffeepot looking for the handle.