Books ARE a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.

Make up a story... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.

You rely on a sentence to say more than the denotation and the connotation; you revel in the smoke that the words send up.

I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.

The pieces I am, she gather them and gave them back to me in all the right order.

I think being an editor really helped me take other people's notes on my writing. I'd get a note like 'It's too wet' or 'The first couple chapters are good, but then the rest of the pages were so wet that they were completely illegible' or 'Did you dip this in Sprite? This smells like Sprite. Why would you dip your novel in Sprite?' And instead of pushing back, I'd listen. That's an incredibly important skill for a young writer to have.

Make a difference, does it? You stay the night here snake get you.