I see so many talented writers who have difficulties with that. And if you don't believe it's important, you won't put in the work you need to.

I co-edited an anthology called Interfictions with Delia Sherman and wrote a short scholarly book on three women poets called Voices from Fairyland: The Fantastical Poems of Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Sylvia Townsend Warner. So I've been busy, but I haven't had time to write a novel.

Art inspires me. Looking at art in a museum, listening to music, reading the works of other writers.

Accept criticism. If you do not offer your work for criticism and accept that criticism, meaning give it serious thought and attention, then you will never improve.

I think part of my purpose in this life is to talk about magic, and to make it.

Writing is an art like other arts. Dancers don't dance every once in a while. Musicians don't stop practicing. They are dedicated to what they do.

The only thing worth thinking about, when I write a story, is whether I like it, whether I want to write it, whether it excites me.