Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.
Tobias WolffOne of the things that draws writers to writing is that they can get things right that they got wrong in real life by writing about them.
Tobias WolffThe very act of writing assumes, to begin with, that someone cares to hear what you have to say. It assumes that people share, that people can be reached, that people can be touched and even in some cases changed. So many of the things in our world lead us to despair. It seems to me that the final symptom of despair is silence, and that storytelling is one of the sustaining arts; itโs one of the affirming arts. A writer may have a certain pessimism in his outlook, but the very act of being a writer seems to me to be an optimistic act.
Tobias Wolff