By the way of connecting with subject, with theme, I was able to find a kind of lifeline. Writing's like a lifeline. You have to get the right way in. Otherwise the material just lies there, and you can't do anything with it.

After love a formal feeling comes.

Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!

That's how a thing starts out real then ends up just an idea.

We are all regionalists in our origins, however 'universal' our themes and characters, and without our cherished hometowns and childhood landscapes to nourish us, we would be like plants set in shallow soil. Our souls must take root - almost literally.

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.

Though I revise constantly as I write, I will usually revise much of the work again after I've reached the ending.