Maybe every couple lived in the gaps between conversations, unable to say the important things for fear they had already been said, or couldn't be said; maybe every relationship started over every time two people came together.

His life was two lives now: the life he would have and the life he would forever wonder about.

The neighborhoods I grew up in were poor and full of drug users. I don't think you have to look that hard to find those kinds of lives. But I also don't think you have to have experienced it really close to be able to empathize.

You take something from your past that you're somewhat ashamed about and you write about it from another character's point of view.

You have to do disappointment twice.

I realized the structure in a collection is how they're put together. Structuring the collection became the art of it for me. Because the stories had all been written.

All we have is the story we tell.