More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have a talent that's special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina.

Children are most impressed with the importance of a moment when they witness a parent breaking the parents' own rule.

To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. In a family even exaggerations make perfect sense.

Self-hatred is worse than loneliness.

Sometimes that's a year, sometimes it's 18 months, where all I'm doing is taking notes. I'm reconstructing the story from the back to the front so that I know where the front is.

Good habits are worth being fanatical about.

… but only because exhaustion is a life-sign; it is at least a form of being human.