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

We are made to persist. that's how we find out who we are.

I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me to be perhaps closer in spirit to poetry than to novels.

You felt it as a depth of ease in certain boys, their innate, affable assurance that they would not have to struggle for a place in the world; that is already reserved for them.

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.

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

Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.