What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.

The importance to the world of what we scribblers write is in doubt, I would think.

Let's look at what the books are that are being produced. More and more they are being made like movies. To sell. They are being tested out.

Good art is a form of prayer. It's a way to say what is not sayable.

You have to read history. You have to have a sense of history.

I have a wonderful editor who believes in fiction and poetry. She herself is a novelist and poet.

I love thrillers. I would even read certain science fiction, although I haven't been a devotee for many years.