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

The universe may be tenderly indifferent to our fate, but we shouldn’t be. We are our brothers’ keepers. There is right, and there is wrong. There are consequences to our actions or inactions. Disregard can be an act of violence.

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

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.

I revise like crazy. I start revising before the pen hits the paper.

Writing a story, you understand, is not done by consensus. But we do learn from each other, and we remind ourselves how important this work we're doing is.

We all sleep with the corpses of our dead lovers.