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.

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

It's easier to write about a place sometimes when you've left it, when you can apply your imagination to your memory and let your emotions guide the writing about a place.

I learned to love stories by listening to them.

Every act of loving affirms the goodness of the lover just because he is capable of loving and being loved.

Drug programs began to turn their attention and money away from prevention and into maintenance. Methadone was cheaper than social workers, I suppose.