Every rejection is incremental payment on your dues that in some way will be translated back into your work.

That's one of the great advantages of age. You can say, I don't want to, I don't care, you can throw temper tantrums, and nobody minds.

Why do I always feel like you're trying to staple my umbilical cord to the corner of your desk?

Never read bad stuff if you're an artist; it will impair your own game. I don't know if you ever played competitive tennis, but you learn not to watch bad tennis; it messes up your game. Art's the same way.

Success, like fashion, is a fickle companion and can leave one in the wink of an eye.

Today, there are more opportunities for writers in terms of access to larger success, but it's more difficult to publish a literary novel in the lower ranges. In other words, you almost have to hit a home run. You can hit a triple, maybe, but nobody's interested in a single.

Neither our own passing nor the passing of an era is a tragedy, no matter how much we would like to think it is.