If you're going to write about someone's life, you don't just use them for wallpaper. You have to honor and respect that life.

I became an electrician after high school. But I always had this thing in me to write. But it was always a little shameful. To say you were a poet was saying you were kind of crazy, and I carried that around for a long time. I still kind of carry that. And I think it might be true, actually.

There are many ways to drown, only the most obvious wave their arms as they're going under.

That soldiers do terrible things during wartime should not surprise us.

Read as much as you can. Write only when you feel the inner need to do so. And don’t ever rush into print.

I can weep pretty easily. I can get tears in my eyes from a beautiful work of art.

Certain stories we carry with us, events in our life, they define who we are. It's not a matter of getting over anything; we have to make the best of it.