A typical biography relying upon individuals' notorious memories and the anecdotes they've invented contains a high degree of fiction, yet is considered 'nonfiction.'

The brain is a muscle of busy hills, the struggle of unthought things with things eternally thought.

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

Impossible not to imagine the dead observing us. Our love for them a soft, shimmering gossamar that trails behind us.

The regional voice is the universal voice.

I've always been interested in writing about people, including young children who are not able to speak for themselves. As in my novel 'Black Water,' I provide a voice for someone who has died and can't speak for herself.

The ideal art, the noblest of art: working with the complexities of life, refusing to simplify, to "overcome" doubt.