I will tell you something about stories . . . They aren't just entertainment. Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death.

Fortunately, her year of graduate classes prepared her for obnoxious conduct.

I write in order to find out what I truly know and how I really feel about certain things. Writing requires me to go much deeper into my thoughts and memories than conversation does. Writing provides the solitude necessary to reflect on being in this world.

the material world and the flesh are only temporary - there are no sins of the flesh, spirit is everything!

But sometimes what we call 'memory' and what we call 'imagination' are not so easily distinguished.

relationships. That's all there really is. There's your relationship with the dust that just blew in your face, or with the person who just kicked you end over end. ... You have to come to terms, to some kind of equilibrium, with those people around you, those people who care for you, your environment.

Writing cant change the world overnight, but writing may have an enormous effect over time, over the long haul.