Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.

One 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.

One of the last courses I taught was on the Russian short story, which I love.

You don't teach information in a writing workshop.

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.

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.

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.