I did things I did not understand for reasons I could not begin to explain just to be in motion, to be trying to do something, change something in a world I wanted desperately to make over but could not imagine for myself.

Twenty years after we had left so fierce and proud, we were all right back where we had started, yoked to each other and the same old drama.

Behind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes, food, meaning, and money. Behind sex is rage, behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence.

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.

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

What's the best thing you can do for your writing? Construct a boring life.

Beauty, my first girlfriend said to me, is that inner quality often associated with great amounts of leisure time.