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

We read novels because we need stories; we crave them; we can’t live without telling them and hearing them. Stories are how we make sense of our lives and of the world. When we’re distressed and go to therapy, our therapist’s job is to help us tell our story. Life doesn’t come with plots; it’s messy and chaotic; life is one damn, inexplicable thing after another. And we can’t have that. We insist on meaning. And so we tell stories so that our lives make sense.

Every person in therapy has a love disorder.

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

What you create when you're teaching fiction writing is a kind of literary salon, not a social club or a mutual admiration society, not a debating society, not a repair shop, not a fight club or a soap box. It's a place to have a conversation about a story.

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

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.