Our memories tell us who we are and they cannot be achieved through committee work, by consulting other people about what happened. That doesn't mean that at all times memories are telling us the absolute truth, but that the main source of who we are is that memory, flawed or not.

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

Like so many writers I started writing stories because I didn't have much time for anything else.

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

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.

The human heart is a dark forest.

There are writers who do start doing the same thing again and again and almost inevitably fall into self-parody.