I might write four lines or I might write twenty. I subtract and I add until I really hit something I want to do. You don't always whittle down, sometimes you whittle up.

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

Waves, once they land on the beach, are not reversible.

Sometimes, walking with a friend, I forget the world.

The only recognizable feature of hope is action.

Sometimes you find that what is most personal is also what connects you most strongly with others.

…I go through a story for lies. I might discover the lie of trying to show off. Sometimes they’re lies of character. Sometimes they are lies of writing the most beautiful sentence in the world that has nothing to do with the story.