If you want a baby, have a new one. Don't baby the old one.

In my time and neighborhood (and in my soul) there was only one standard by which a woman measured success: did some man want her?

At fourteen you don't need sickness or death for tragedy.

Knowledge of what you love somehow comes to you; you don’t have to read nor analyze nor study. If you love a thing enough, knowledge of it seeps into you, with particulars more real than any chart can furnish.

The conversation of two people remembering, if the memory is enjoyable to both, rocks on like music or lovemaking. There is a rhythm and a predictability to it that each anticipates and relishes.

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.

If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.