Even the bad books I write are satisfying. I'm my least critical reader.

I got used to being a writer. To compare it to teaching - I taught for twenty-five years; for the first two or three years it was heady. I was discovering that I could do something and do it well. Be useful to people. It was exhilarating, sort of like the first two weeks of being in love with somebody, and then it becomes like the third bite of pizza. The first bite is wonderful. The second bite is not disappointing. The third? Meh. You get used to it.

Even the bad books I write are satisfying. I'm my least critical reader.

Hiding under the bed doesn't make the worry stop.

People can be unimaginably foolish...and they can be unimaginably grand, at times.

I got to thinking—when it was too late—you have to reach out to people. To your family, too. You can't just let them sit there, you should put your hand out. If they slap it back, well you reach out again if you care enough. If you don't care enough, you forget about them, if you can.

I didnt write anything at all except book reports until I was in seventh grade, and then I wrote mostly poetry for myself.