Yet I will make you all love me and I will punish myself to spite your love.

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

You cultivate the subconscious by meditation, by sitting in silence and by not trying to control your thoughts. Then go someplace where you haven't been before, or go for a walk, a run, and look for signs of grace-an epiphany, something that comes to you.

Stories come to us as wraiths requiring precise embodiments.

Our enemy is by tradition our savior, in preventing us from superficiality.

Keeing busy" is the remedy for all the ills in America. It's also the means by which the creative impulse is destroyed.

I would suggest the widow do things the husband used to do, so he seems to be there with you. You will feel like just going to bed. It's so wonderful, going to bed.