Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is your friend in writing.

Had he learned nothing from all those years of teaching Hawthorne? Through story after story he'd led his boys to consider the folly of obsession with purity - its roots sunk deep in pride, flowering condemnation and violence against others and self.

But a lot of writers - and I'm one of them - do tend to feel dissatisfied. It makes you a little hard to live with, but it's a goad and does keep you alert and restless.

I love Chekhov. I could go on all day about him.

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

The human heart is a dark forest.

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