Reading is also a creative activity if you're doing it right. You can learn more from a story that's left the tracks than from a successful story.

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

We all sleep with the corpses of our dead lovers.

The landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.

I was reading for understanding. I wanted to do to a reader what Salinger did for me.

You will feel discouraged; you will lose confidence in your abilities; you will be bored with the characters–and the only way to overcome these obstacles is to write your way through them. And writing always works.

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.