There's a lot of water in everything I've ever written. There's always oceans and pools.

Teaching writing puts you on the point of a pin in terms of what you want your own writing to be.

I think sometimes to still be angry is appropriate, but you want to be able to live with it.

I know perfectly well that you can't not want anything and live.

I don't think you can have an imagination without having fantasy, and you can't have that rich a life without an imagination.

The state of love is this constant flux back and forth between who's saving and who's rescuing, who's wanting and not wanting, who's needing and who isn't. It's always going back and forth between two people who are actually attached.

That's what perfect means. You're finished.