I believe that one of the most damning things about our culture is the adage to never talk religion and politics. Because we don't model this discourse at the dinner table and at Thanksgiving, we don't know how to do it well and we're not teaching our children about the world and about how to discuss it.

If I'd learned nothing else, it was this: If you want to be a great writer, be a man. If you can't be a man, write like one.

Women are constantly underestimated in our power, our reach, our collective pull.

Genres are just bottles for the various boats. The boats matter to me.

Writing stories is the habit of lying put to good use.

But there it is: Everyone is alone, for life, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

I've never thought there was anything I could hope to get by praying for it.