Write from what you know into what you don't know.

I read a lot. I liked a tremendous number of poets and writers. The person whose work I liked the most was Joyce.

Well, you have children so you know: little children little troubles, big children, big troubles - it's a saying in Yiddish. Maybe the Chinese said it too.

I didn't intend to become a short-story writer. I became one because I finished a couple of short stories and realized that's what I wanted to do and could do with children and with all the other things in my life.

If I miss anything, it's being able to hang out in the city of New York meeting people and talking to them on the corner.

I don't believe civilization can do a lot more than educate a person's senses.

I know I've done good work. I've been very serious about my writing, and I've done the best that I could. But I don't feel that I've done more than I should have. In fact, I've done less than I should have.