Old folks are the nation.

People have to be given permission to write, and they have to be given space to breathe and stumble. They have to be given time to develop and to reveal what they can do.

Reappraise the past, re-evaluate where we've been, clarify where we are, and predict or anticipate where we are headed. . . .

... in a capitalist society a man is expected to be an aggressive, uncompromising, factual, lusty, intelligent provider of goods,and the woman, a retiring, gracious, emotional, intuitive, attractive consumer of goods.

She [my mother] gave me permission to wonder, to dawdle, to daydream.

Write a lot and hit the streets. A writer who doesn't keep up with what's out there ain't gonna be out there.

The story is a piece of work. The novel is a way of life.