Life is full of doors that don't open when you knock, equally spaced amid those that open when you don't want them to.

When inspiration is silent reason tires quickly.

One of my standard - and fairly true - responses to the question as to how story ideas come to me is that story ideas only come to me for short stories. With longer fiction, it is a character (or characters) coming to visit, and I am then obliged to collaborate with him/her/it/them in creating the story.

When you are about to die, a wombat is better than no company at all.

Did you ever look back at some moment in your past and have it suddenly grow so vivid that all the intervening years seemed brief, dreamlike, impersonal—the motions of a May afternoon surrendered to routine?

Even a mirror will not show you yourself, if you do not wish to see.

Do you work for the government, any government?” "I pay taxes, which means I work for the government, part of the time. Yes.