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 was always writing. I just didn't know if I was any good.

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

I write with a fountain pen. And then revise word by word and line by line so that the first draft of a scene is usually the tenth or so draft.

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

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

I had begun what I thought might be a career in social work. I was married and deeply involved in the anti-war movement. I thought I'd go about saving the world one person at a time. I worked with kids, teenagers mostly, in neighborhood centers, on the streets, and eventually in a drop-in center.