Some literature is knowledge, some is just data. But if I can get a "happy" ending - which is when for the characters I'm writing about, something happens that they move from wherever they are in the beginning to knowledge or wisdom, they know something they never would have acknowledged or realized if it hadn't been for my book - that for me is what literature does.

...when the little boy discovered, at four, the same thing Mr. Smith had learned earlier -- that only birds and planes could fly -- he lost all interest in himself.

Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don't feel safe.

Writing is really a way of thinking--not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.

Nobody loved her and she wouldn’t have liked it if they had, she considered love a serious disability.

Anger... it's a paralyzing emotion... you can't get anything done.

From my point of view, your life is already a miracle of chance waiting for you to shape its destiny.