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.

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.

We all sleep with the corpses of our dead lovers.

Place is character. And all writing is regional.

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.

There were the fairy tales my father told to me at bedtime. All the standards. I thought my father invented wolves.

The purpose of the first draft is not to get it right, but to get it written.