Reasons always came with a purpose, to give the appearance of a struggle between principle and desire. Principle had power only until you found what you had to have.

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.

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

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.

The human heart is a dark forest.

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

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