The purpose of the first draft is not to get it right, but to get it written.

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.

At the heart of all good fiction and at the heart of all good gossip is the same thing: trouble.

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

The facts, however, are unimportant in fiction. It's not the events of my life that I mine, but the emotional experiences I've had.

You lose a wallet or keys or something and you notice in a second, but your life can go missing and you don't even know it.

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