Novels begin, not on the page, but in meditation and day-dreaming - In thinking, not writing.
The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.
God's blessing is not always to be distinguished from His wrath.
Very few writers of distinction in fact were outstanding as undergraduates.
I was writing novels in high school and apprenticed myself in a way both to Faulkner and to Hemingway.