My family were Russian Jews. They got you to read as soon as you could. And then assumed you would read a lot. People didn't really tell stories but they were good talkers. That's important for a writer, to hear speakers.

No metaphor reinvents the job of the nurture of children except to muddy or mock.

In the end, long life is the reward, strength, and beauty.

It's a terrible thing to die young. Still, it saves a lot of time.

My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life.

The wrong word is like a lie jammed inside the story.

I begin by writing paragraphs that don’t have an immediate relation to a plot. The sound of the story comes first.