For me, the term "literary fiction" means there's always attention paid to language, and linguistic experimentation, sophistication.

In short stories there's more permission to be elliptical. You can have image-logic, or it's almost like a poem in that you can come to a lot of meanings within a short space.

I swim with all my strength. No superhuman surge, or pony heroics; it's just me at my most desperate.

I tended to be drawn to the weirder, darker stuff. Horror and sci-fi anthologies.

"I'm not going anywhere," she told me that night. But until we are old ladies-a cypress age, a Sawtooth age-I will continue to link arms with her, in public, in private, in a panic of love.

Self-disciplin e is necessary, but so is playfulness, flexibility, joy. When you stop demanding perfection of yourself, your writing desk will become a spacious place.

I think that's the real horror story for me, how little you can ever really know about your own motivations. How in the dark we all are about the concerns and the contents of our minds.