I don't mind being criticized intelligently; although I don't love it.

I watched a bunch of kids movies on Christmas. I was kind of joking with our family by asking, "Is anyone allowed to die in a kid's movie anymore?"

Chekhov - shall I be blunt? - is the greatest short story writer who ever lived.

As Flannery O'Connor says, a person can choose what she writes but she can't choose what she makes live. Some people are really acoustic writers and so for them the secret revision is sound. Other people may revise in terms of the way a paragraph feels. There's a million ways to do it.

It really strikes me how much of your energy in America, especially if you're from a working back-ground, is spent just keeping your head above water. It really saps your grace and your strength.

I understand what something short should be like. I understand beauty in that form. If I start extending, somehow I kind of lose my bearings.

I do find the values in A Christmas Carol significant. It is important not to be mean and stingy and not to give up love for money.