As a writer we are our own instruments; we need to protect our instrument, because no one will protect it if we don't.

If you write memoir, it can't be about blame or hurt; it has to be creative.

Maggie Shipstead takes hold of the reader and doesn't let go. Astonish Me is a haunting, powerful novel.

You have to believe in yourself before the world has given you any indication that you should believe in yourself as a writer.

Writing well involves walking the path of most resistance. Sitting still, being patient, allowing the lunatic dream to take shape on the page, then the shaping, the pencil on the page, breathing, slowing down, being willing–no, more than willing, being wide open–to press the bruise until it blossoms.

In every generation there is a vault-keeper, one who guards the links fiercely and knows they are more precious than rubies.

When I was starting out there was no Internet, there wasn't this sense that you could be connected to other writers around the world. And that created a kind of innocence, or parochial quality, even in NYC.