I'm dense when it comes to discouragement.

Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot or two, because the reader has made a different commitment.

I've read short stories that are as dense as a 19th century novel and novels that really are short stories filled with a lot of helium.

Editors of open anthologies actively seek submissions from all comers, established and unknown. They are willing to read whatever the tide washes up at their feet.

There is nothing that compares to an unexpected round of applause.

It's possible to become so comfortable with one's style and structure that one ceases to grow.

When I have an idea, it goes from vague, cloudy notion to 100,000 words in a heartbeat.