Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, writers will go to stupefying lengths to get the infernal roar of words out of their skulls and onto paper.

I rarely think of poetry as something I make happen; it is more accurate to say that it happens to me. Like a summer storm, a house afire, or the coincidence of both on the same day.

Come to think of it, just about every tool was shaped like either a weenie or a pistol, depending on your point of view.

If someone does learn about the world from reading a novel of mine, that makes me very happy. It's probably not what brings me into the novel in the first place - I usually am pulled in by some big question about the world and human nature that I'm not going to resolve in the course of the novel. But I'm very devoted to getting my facts straight.

Mother could go for one year without food, but not one day without her lip sticks.

The happiest people are the ones with the most community.

God, why does a mortal man have children? It is senseless to love anything this much.