I can't imagine writing if I didn't have a reader. Any more than an actor can imagine acting without an audience.

You have your wonderful memories," people said later, as if memories were solace. Memories are not. Memories are by definition of times past, things gone. Memories are the Westlake uniforms in the closet, the faded and cracked photographs, the invitations to the weddings of the people who are no longer married, the mass cards from the funerals of the people whose faces you no longer remember. Memories are what you no longer want to remember.

You have to make sure you have the characters you want. That's really the most complicated part.

Grammar is a piano I play by ear.

We are the stories we tell ourselves

Anything worth having has its price.

I work every day. Sometimes I don't accomplish anything every day, but if I don't work every day, I get depressed and get afraid to start again. So I do something every day.