Sometimes people surprise us. People we believe we know.

See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there's a reason. There has to be

In a family, what isn't spoken is what you listen for. But the noise of a family is to drown it out.

'The Accursed' is very much a novel about social injustice as the consequence of the terrible, tragic division of classes - the exploitation not only of poor and immigrant workers but of their young children in factories and mills - and as the consequence of race hatred in the aftermath of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves.

Self-criticism, like self-administered brain surgery, is perhaps not a good idea. Can the 'self' see the 'self' with any objectivity?

Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!

Writers and artists never pay attention to advice given by their elders, quite rightly. The only worthwhile advice is the most general: Keep trying, don't give up, don't be discouraged, don't pay attention to detractors. Everyone knows this.