When your power comes from others, on approval, you are their slave. Never sacrifice yourselves - never! Whoever urges you to self-sacrifice is worse than a common murderer, who at least cuts your throat himself, without persuading YOU to do it.

I was giving up--being realistic, as people liked to say, meaning the same thing. Being realistic made me feel bitter.

It's probably why I'm a short story writer. I tend to remember things in the past in narrative form, in story form, and I grew up around people who told stories all the time.

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

There's a joy in writing short stories, a wonderful sense of reward when you pull certain things off.

Because I don't have to be careful of people's feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I'm teaching writing.

Most of us dont live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented.