I learned to love stories by listening to them.

I revise like crazy. I start revising before the pen hits the paper.

Every person in therapy has a love disorder.

You can't possibly conduct a proper affair without a lot of deliberating, scheming, speculating, and conniving. It's a delicate balance where the excitement must equal the guilt and sex must be as bright as the future you gamble.

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.

The regional tags are often pejorative and dismissive. Don't think of place-bound stories, in other words, but of stories with a strong sense of 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.