For the source of the short story is usually lyrical. And all writers speak from, and speak to, emotions eternally the same in all of us: love, pity, terror do not show favorites or leave any of us out.

My main disappointment was always that a book had to end. And then what? But I don't think I was ever disappointed by the books. I must have been what any author would consider an ideal reader. I felt every pain and pleasure suffered or enjoyed by all the characters. Oh, but I identified!

The first thing we see about a short story is its mystery. And in the best short stories, we return at the last to see mystery again

Every story teaches me how to write it. Unfortunately, it doesn't teach me how to write the next one.

What we know about writing the novel is the novel.

I learned quickly enough when to click the shutter, but what I was becoming aware of more slowly was a story-writer's truth: The thing to wait on, to reach for, is the moment in which people reveal themselves... I learned from my own pictures, one by one, and had to; for I think we are the breakers of our own hearts.

Daydreaming had started me on the way; but story writing once I was truly in its grip, took me and shook me awake.