Maybe it goes without saying that if you want to become a famous writer before you’re dead, you’ll have to write something. But the folks in my classes with the biggest ideas and the best publicity shots ready to grace the back covers of their best-selling novels are also usually the ones who aren’t holding any paper.

My own habit had always been to write about the things that ticked me off in a given day. If I kept a journal at all, I kept it to vent.

It is a great paradox and a great injustice that writers write because we fear death and want to leave something indestructible in our wake and, at the same time, are drawn to all the things that kill: whiskey and cigarettes, unprotected sex, and deep-fried burritos.

I always do like seeing other people dance in their cars. It's one of the things that makes me happy.

Some caregivers want to reciprocate the care they themselves received as children.

Your heart is the size of your fist; keep loving, keep fighting.

When I was a kid, my mother's parenting style teetered between benign neglect and intense bouts of violence.