Reading, like writing, is a creative act. If readers only bring a narrow range of themselves to the book, then they'll only see their narrow range reflected in it.

This earth that we live on is full of stories in the same way that, for a fish, the ocean is full of ocean. Some people say when we are born we're born into stories. I say we're also born from stories.

We have fallen into this very mean description of humanity. Naturalism in fiction is too reductive in its definition of human beings.

Maybe there are only three kinds of stories: those we live, those we tell, and those that help our souls fly upwards to a greater life.

The best writing is not about the writer, the best writing is absolutely not about the writer, it's about us, it's about the reader.

The higher the artist, the fewer the gestures. The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination. The greater the will, the greater the secret failure.

One of the greatest gifts my father gave me - unintentionally - was witnessing the courage with which he bore adversity.