Stories are like relics, part of an undiscovered preexisting world. The writer's job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.

It's a tough life if you don't weaken.

The more fiction you read and write, the more you'll find your paragraphs forming on their own.

I'm still in love with what I do, with the idea of making things up, so hours when I write always feel like very blessed hours to me.

Ka was a wheel; it was also a net from which none ever escaped.

Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation. Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as 'good' and other sorts as 'bad' is fearful behavior.

They were trying to run, trying to hide. But the rock would not hide them; the dead tree gave no shelter.