Don’t complain, don’t explain.

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

I guess my writing has changed as my life has.

The places where water comes together with other water. Those places stand out in my mind like holy places.

You're...writing for other writers to an extent-the dead writers whose work you admire, as well as the living writers you like to read.

Mel thought real love was nothing less than spiritual love. He'd said he'd spent five years in a seminary before quitting to go to medical school. He said he still looked back on those years in the seminary as the most important years of his life.

In short, everything about his life was different for him at the bottom of that well.