There are very few professions in which people just sit down and think hard for five or six hours a day all by themselves. Of course it's why you want to become a writer — because you have the liberty to do that, but once you have the liberty you also have the obligation to do it.

There’s no right way to tell all stories, only the right way to tell a particular story.

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

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

I try to help people become the best possible editors of their own work, to help them become conscious of the things they do well, of the things they need to look at again, of the wells of material they have not even begun to dip their buckets into.

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

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