As a writer you can and should expect to hear conflicting responses to your story.

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.

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

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

I learned to love stories by listening to them.

I sat around the kitchen every Sunday afternoon listening to my mother and aunts talk about the people in the neighborhood. Gossip - I loved it. And that turns out to be the writer's job: to attend to the gossip and spread it as far as you can.

Love is always a surprise and you never get it right.