Actually, my first literary heroes were the Romantic poets, so I began to get serious by writing poems. I have notebooks full of them that I cherish but am afraid to look at.

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.

Love is anticipation and memory, uncertainty and longing. It’s unreasonable, of course. Nothing begins with so much excitement and hope and pleasure as love, except maybe writing a story. And nothing fails as often, except writing stories. And like a story, love must be troubled to be interesting.

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

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

Every person in therapy has a love disorder.

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