I always say to my students, if you can do anything other than writing and be happy, then you should.

I’m not a writing group member, not a joiner in that way. I don’t seek a wide swath of feedback.

I think there's no question that there's a reason why small children make great art and why slightly bigger children don't. And it's because small children don't worry about what anybody else thinks and slightly bigger children start to worry about these things.

Above all, in my anger, I was sad. Isn't that always the way, that at the heart of the fire is a frozen kernel of sorrow that the fire is trying -- valiantly, fruitlessly -- to eradicate.

I've always felt that if a project seems easy, or even attainable, why pursue it? I'll always find the hardest path.

I always say to my students, if you can do anything other than writing and be happy, then you should.

An abiding preoccupation for me is how much of our lives are invisible and unknown by other people like the Chekhov story The Lady With the Little Dog.