A book is like a pump. It gives nothing unless first you give to it. You prime a pump with your own water, you work the handle with your own strength. You do this because you expect to get back more than you give.

The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they come uninvited.

Our memories have voices, too. Often sad ones that clamor like raised arms in the dark.

The quickest way to learn about a new place is to know what it dreams of.

I think the best writers are voracious readers who pick up the cadences and the feel of narration through a number of different books. And you begin by maybe copying the style of writers that really knocked you out.

Cats were the gangsters of the animal world, living outside the law and often dying there. There were a great many of them who never grew old by the fire.

He smiles a lot. But I think there might be worms inside him making him smile.