Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying 'Listen to me'.

The most compelling narrative, expressed in sentences with which I have no chemical reaction, or an adverse one, leaves me cold.

When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.

Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.

Writing is one of the most assertive things a person can do.

Do what I will never do.

She had listened to him, partly sympathetic, partly horrified. For it was one thing for her to reject her background, to be critical of her family's heritage, another to hear it from him.