Relationships do not preclude issues of morality.

A writer has to true to him or herself. Period. That’s it!

I approach writing stories as a recorder. I think of my role as some kind of reporting device - recording and projecting.

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

I've seen novels that have grown out of one story in a collection. But it hasn't occurred to me to take any of those stories and build on them. They seem very finished for me, so I don't feel like going back and dredging them up.

Pet names are a persistant remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so formal, so complicated. They are a reminder, too, that one is not all things to all people.

She supposed that all those years of loving a person who was dishonest had taught her a few things.