I'm a workmanlike writer. I show up every day and treat it like a job. The old rule that writing is like any other job, the first rule is that you must show up. I'm at the keyboard from 9 to 4 every day.

The sadness you feel is not your own. It's his sadness you feel in your heart, Amy, for missing you.

You learn to write by reading, and my experiences and tastes as a reader are pretty wide.

It's different being afraid when there's the hope it will amount to something.

Writing is a job: you must show up.

Even on the darkest night, my friend, life will have its way.

So perhaps the greatest worry of all was that one day you would realize that all the worries of your life amounted to one thing: the desire to just stop worrying.