Behind the story I tell is the one I don't...Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear.

Beauty is a hard thing. Beauty is a mean story. Beauty is slender girls who die young, fine-featured delicate creatures about whom men write poems. Beauty, my first girlfriend said to me, is that inner quality often associated with great amounts of leisure time. And I loved her for that.

I did not begin with craft, I began with strong feelings and worked toward craft.

And while it is true that I got the best woman in the world, I don't think love saves you.

Why write stories? To join the conversation.

Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.

I don't believe that there is any true friendship without a bond of honor, and the honor in friendship is the respect you give the other that she also gives you.