The first person besides my mother who believed in me was a man whose last name I never knew. He was my boss, the manager of Swenson's Ice Cream shop.

Writers collect stories of rituals: John Cheever putting on a jacket and tie to go down to the basement, where he kept a desk near the boiler room. Keats buttoning up his clean white shirt to write in, after work.

Casebook is my attempt at a love story. I had a vision of a difficult love.

Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.

We come into the world whole, all of us, but we don't know that, don't know that life will be taking large chunks out of us, forever.

The first person besides my mother who believed in me was a man whose last name I never knew. He was my boss, the manager of Swenson's Ice Cream shop.

In every person's face, there is one place that seems to express them most accurately. With my grandmother, you always looked at her mouth.