Relationships do not preclude issues of morality.

Sexy means loving someone you donot know.

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.

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

In fiction, plenty do the job of conveying information, rousing suspense, painting characters, enabling them to speak. But only certain sentences breathe and shift about, like live matter in soil.

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.

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