People begin to write in order to create what they have not found and, a little bit, to give something back.

I'll tell you the secret. When you begin with a character, you want to begin by creating a villain.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.

I am the only one who can tell the story of my life and say what it means.

Two or three things I know, two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that to go on living I have to tell stories, that stories are the one sure way I know to touch the heart and change the world

I'm still very blunt: If you want to be a writer, get a day job. The fact that I have actually been able to make a living at it is astonishing.

If you just go get one of these little fine arts degrees or writing program degrees, it never forces you to confront your responsibility as narrator, whereas any of the social sciences make you at look the interaction between the storyteller and story.