One can imagine a world without essays. It would be a little poorer, of course, like a world without chess, but one could live in it.

Want! You must want something. What do you want?

Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow.

The very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that people share, that people can be reached, that people can be touched and even in some cases changed. So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts; it’s one of the affirming arts. A writer may have a certain pessimism in his outlook, but the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act.

Work for most people is really very social, and the actual thinking is often done in community.

One of the last courses I taught was on the Russian short story, which I love.

In writing you work toward a result you won't see for years, and can't be sure you'll ever see. It takes stamina and self-mastery and faith. It demands those things of you, then gives them back with a little extra, a surprise to keep you coming. It toughens you and clears your head. I could feel it happening. I was saving my life with every word I wrote, and I knew it.