It's my experience that very few writers, young or old, are really seeking advice when they give out their work to be read. They want support; they want someone to say, "Good job."

Nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently.

If you feel strongly about people having abortions, don't have one.

You live your life at the time you live it -- you don't have much of an overview when what's happening to you is still happening.

It is much easier to be flexible about where a story begins than it ever was for me to change my mind about where and how a story ended.

Life is an X-rated soap opera.

I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of time is almost as central to the novel as a major minor character, the passage of time and its effect on the characters in the story.