You know the mind is an astonishing, long-living, erotic thing.

I really believe one of the jobs of a writer is to stretch as far as you can into other voices.

Every time you finish something ... you figure you've finally learned to write, right? Then you start something else and it turns out you haven't. You have learned how to write that story, or that book, but you haven't learned how to write the next one.

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.

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

Art's too long and life's too short.

The best training is to read and write, no matter what. Don't live with a lover or roommate who doesn't respect your work. Don't lie, buy time, borrow to buy time. Write what will stop your breath if you don't write.