Every story I've written was written because I had to write it. Writing stories is like breathing for me; it is my life.

But with the library, it's like catnip, I suppose: you begin to run in circles because there's so much to look at and read.

You take the books, you lie there in the pools of light and you drink life. That is how intensely I have loved libraries.

A book is a loaded gun in the house next door...Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?

In your reading, find books to improve your color sense, your sense of shape and size in the world.

I did what most writers do at their beginnings: emulated my elders, imitated my peers, thus turning away from any possibility of discovering truths beneath my skin and behind my eye.

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.