Working on a new idea is kind of like getting married. Then a new idea comes along and you think, 'Man, I'd really like to go out with her.' But you can't. At least not until the old idea is finished.

It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.

The most important things are the hardest to say

Stories are artifacts, not really made things which we create and can take credit for, but pre-existing objects which we dig up.

Time is a keyhole.... We sometimes bend and peer through it. And the wind we feel on our cheeks when we do--the wind that blows through the keyhole--is the breath of all the living universe.

I think you're a taker. You've always been one. It's like God left some part of you out when He built you inside of me.

The important question has nothing to do with whether the talk in your story is sacred or profane; the only question is how it rings on the page and in your ear. If you expect it to ring true, then you must talk yourself. Even more important, you must shut up and listen to others talk.