At a certain point, you must be able to slip loose. At a certain point, you found that you had been set free. You could be anyone, he thought. You could be anyone.

I think we're always in some ways writing to the teachers who gave us early love.

It is not like a premonition of death. It is as if she died a long time ago, and she just now remembered it.

A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.

I would say that all short stories have mystery naturally built into them.

When I was younger I was attracted to people who had that kind of artifice - people who were incredibly polished and had a complex persona that always seemed to be turned on. I was really interested in these kinds of people because I felt so unformed.

Plot was always secondary in my mind.