Never think you've seen the last of anything.

Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.

A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.

I get a moral satisfaction out of putting things together.

Never think you've seen the last of anything.

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.

There's still a strange moment with every book when I move from the position of writer to the position of reader and I suddenly see my words with the eyes of the cold public. It gives me a terrible sense of exposure, as if I'd gotten sunburned.