Nothing the writer can do is ever enough.

Nothing we do is inevitable, but everything we do is irreversible.

Writers when they're writing live in a spooky, clamorous silence, a state somewhat like the advanced stages of prayer but without prayer's calming benefits.

Writers are like eremites or anchorites - natural-born eremites or anchorites - who seem puzzled as to why they went up the pole or into the cave in the first place.

You must stop worrying about why things happen and wonder what they mean when they do.

I think the writer has to be responsible to signs and dreams. If you don't do anything with it, you lose it.

Good writing never soothes or comforts. It is no prescription, neither is it diversionary, although it can and should enchant while it explodes in the reader's face.