The way we started was, Alison [McGhee] said, 'Tall girl, short girl.' We had no plans beyond that.

And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.

There ain't no point in making soup unless others eat it. Soup needs another mouth to taste it, another heart to be warmed by it.

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.

I journal for about half an hour, and by the time that's done, the business day on the East Coast has begun. The phone starts to ring, and the rest of the day is spent dealing with the business of writing. My workday is done at about 3:00.

All of God's creatures have names, every last one of them. Of that I am sure: of that I have no doubt at all.

You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now.