I want to write about spiders. To me, this is the one theme that cuts right across and scares just about everybody. Spiders, to me, are just about the most horrible, awful things that I can think about. I think everyone is afraid of spiders.

The only [working] ritual is making tea. I use the loose leaves and drink it by the gallon.

I don't mean that creative people are somehow finer, or more sensitive, and thus have finer, more sensitive nervous breakdowns - you can save that horseshit for the Sylvia Plath worshipers. It's just that creative people have creative breakdowns.

The glory of a good tale is that it is limitless and fluid; a good tale belongs to each reader in its own particular way.

Want to know the best thing about teaching? Seeing that moment when a kid discovers his or her gift. There's no feeling on earth like it.

I like to hang out clothes on windy days. Sometimes that's all I feel like. A sheet on a line.

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.