A great danger, or at least a great temptation, for many writers is to become too autobiographical in their approach to their fiction. A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best.

There is no God, and conversation is a dying art.

Ralph also took some classes in philosophy and literature and felt himself on the brink of some kind of huge discovery about himself. But it never came.

There's literary creation and literary business. When I first got something accepted, it gave my life a validation it didn't otherwise have.

Get in, get out. Don't linger. Go on.

Life and death matters, yes. And the question of how to behave in this world, how to go in the face of everything. Time is short and the water is rising.

When a reader finishes a wonderful story and lays it aside, he should have to pause for a minute and collect himself.