Love is always a surprise and you never get it right.

As a writer you can and should expect to hear conflicting responses to your story.

I think I've learned to be mindful. I may not have taken the time to try to understand narrative techniques, let's say, with any rigor, if I did not also have to try to explain those techniques to someone else.

Every act of loving affirms the goodness of the lover just because he is capable of loving and being loved.

You can't possibly conduct a proper affair without a lot of deliberating, scheming, speculating, and conniving. It's a delicate balance where the excitement must equal the guilt and sex must be as bright as the future you gamble.

The facts, however, are unimportant in fiction. It's not the events of my life that I mine, but the emotional experiences I've had.

What you create when you're teaching fiction writing is a kind of literary salon, not a social club or a mutual admiration society, not a debating society, not a repair shop, not a fight club or a soap box. It's a place to have a conversation about a story.