We are creatures of story.

Those who try to obliterate the past are injuring the present.

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.

Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away.

As individuals, we are shaped by story from the time of birth; we are formed by what we are told by our parents, our teachers, our intimates.

Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn't work, throw it away. It's a nice feeling, and you don't want to be cluttered with the corpses of poems and stories which have everything in them except the life they need.

Finish the day's writing when you still want to continue.