A pure love is a selfless love, but can desire ever be selfless?

I lost my job and started painting houses with a friend. The marriage had ended about the same time the career did.

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.

I grew up in a house without many books. The books the nuns made us read in school didn't interest me.

With each draft, the work gets better, and usually that means tighter. It means getting the precise word, not the approximate word.

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

In revision, your imagination becomes deeply engaged with your material. It's when you come to know your characters and begin to perceive their motivations and values.