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.

A lack of narrative structure, as you know, will cause anxiety.

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

Revision is not the end of the creative process, but a new beginning. It's a chance not just to clean up and edit, but to open up and discover. The energetic prose comes about from all the energy that went into crafting it, I suppose.

Fiction begins with the senses, and the senses go to work in a place.

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.

Pleasure is, after all, a luxury. It's love that's essential.