I've never been in charge of my stories, they've always been in charge of me. As each new one has called to me, ordering me to give it voice and form and life, I've followed the advice I've shared with other writers over the years: jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down.

When you're older you want to learn from other people.

Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge.

He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.

Don't think about things, just do them; don't predict them, just make them.

My tunes and numbers are here. They have filled my years, the years when I refused to die. And in order to do that I wrote, I wrote, I wrote, at noon or 3:00 A.M. So as not to be dead.

Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.