The story knows itself better than the writer does at some point, knows what's being said before the writer figures out how to say it.

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

Writers end up writing stories-or rather, stories' shadows-and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough

I believe in guilt. There's not enough guilt around these days for my taste.

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.

There is something unwholesome and destructive about the entire writing process.

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