Memories do not always soften with time; some grow edges like knives.

Small change, small wonders - these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life.

The wrong words are impossible when there are no words.

The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words.

When you pick up a novel from the bed side table, you put down your own life at the same time and you become another person for the duration.

I look at my four boys, who are the colors of silt, loam, dust, and clay, an infinite palette for children of their own, and I understand that time erases whiteness altogether.

Plot comes first. The plot is the archictecture of your novel. You wouldn't build a house without a plan. If I wrote without a plot, it would just be a pile of bricks. Characters are your servants. They must serve your plot.