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

There are significant moments in everyone's day that can make literature. That's what you ought to write about.

The fiction Im most interested in has lines of reference to the real world.

I've crossed some kind of invisible line. I feel as if I've come to a place I never thought I'd have to come to. And I don't know how I got here. It's a strange place. It's a place where a little harmless dreaming and then some sleepy, early-morning talk has led me into considerations of death and annihilation.

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

Then I said something. I said, Suppose, just suppose, nothing had ever happened. Suppose this was for the first time. Just suppose. It doesn't hurt to suppose. Say none of the other had ever happened. You know what I mean? Then what? I said.

A man can go along obeying all the rules and then it don't matter a damn anymore.