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

You have to be kind of clued into them, they are a world of their own, and most people find them disappointing because the best short stories are not constructed like novels.

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.

The beauty of a fragment is that it still supports the hope of brilliant completeness.

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

You don't teach information in a writing workshop.

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