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

Dialogue has to show not only something about the speaker that is its own revelation, but also maybe something about the speaker that he doesn't know but the other character does know.

There is absolutely everything in great fiction but a clear answer.

Never think you've seen the last of anything.

Once you're into a story everything seems to apply-what you overhear on a city bus is exactly what your character would say on the page you're writing. Wherever you go, you meet part of your story.

I had to grow up and learn to listen for the unspoken as well as the spoken-and to know a truth.

Great fiction shows us not how to conduct our behavior but how to feel. Eventually, it may show us how to face our feelings and face our actions and to have new inklings about what they mean. A good novel of any year can initiate us into our own new experience.