it doesn t matter if it takes a long time getting there; the point is to have a destination.

Is there any sleeping person you can be entirely sure you have not misjudged?

People are mostly layers of violence and tenderness wrapped like bulbs, and it is difficult to say what makes them onions or hyacinths.

The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy.

One place comprehended can make us understand other places better.

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

The first act of insight is throw away the labels. In fiction, while we do not necessarily write about ourselves, we write out of ourselves, using ourselves; what we learn from, what we are sensitive to, what we feel strongly about--these become our characters and go to make our plots. Characters in fiction are conceived from within, and they have, accordingly, their own interior life; they are individuals every time.