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 learned to love stories by listening to them.

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

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 grew up in a house without many books. The books the nuns made us read in school didn't interest me.

Novels are written, not wished into existence. You have to sit your ass in the chair or nothing gets done.

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