My circumstances of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction necessitated the short story form.

Remember Haydn's 104 symphonies. Not all of them were great. But there were 104 of them.

I'm moving to Nevada. Either there or kill myself.

My circumstances of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction necessitated the short story form.

I've done as many as 20 or 30 drafts of a story. Never less than 10 or 12 drafts.

But he stays by the window, remembering that life. They had laughed. They had leaned on each other and laughed until the tears had come, while everything else—the cold and where he'd go in it—was outside, for a while anyway.

Anyone can express himself or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate.