And so you must grant to God what is God and not try to think of what you have lost, for that way is madness.

Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor.

The institution of marriage is just formalizing an emotion, an attempt to make it seem permanent. The emotion will last or it won't last; nothing can guarantee it.

Technique holds a reader from sentence to sentence, but only content will stay in his mind.

It is important for me to discover the ideal title, for without this title the story or novel isn't quite in focus.

Writing is a consequence of having been 'haunted' by material. Why this is, no one knows.

When I complete a novel I set it aside, and begin work on short stories, and eventually another long work. When I complete that novel I return to the earlier novel and rewrite much of it. In the meantime the second novel lies in a desk drawer.