I revise and revise and revise. I'm not even sure "revise" is the right word. I work a story almost to death before it's done.

We don't want emotion handed to us - that's not emotion. You have to build and come from the reader's soul.

I write by hand in my notebooks and number the drafts, so I know how crazy I can get with this. Some writers, like my teacher Marilynne Robinson, she only writes one draft. I've thought about this a lot; I think it's because she writes it 80 times in her head before it comes out.

I sometimes wonder if our memories are a myth. We think we remember, but we are remembering the story and not the actual event?

What you can do with a short story that you can't do with a novel is punch someone in the gut, in the best of ways.

I've spent so many years living in one place and imaging another.

I think some writers should wait for something to say.