Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and true art. And after that, the whip came down.

He’d always been willing to confess his faults, for, by admitting them, it was as if he made them no longer exist.

There is no shame — having a dirty face — the shame comes when you keep it dirty.

There were hints of sunrise on the rim of the sky, yet it was still dark, and the traces of morning color were like goldfish swimming in ink.

I've been working, working, working, and you know, sometimes you look back at your work and you see that it just isn't any good.

June, July, all through the warm months she hibernated like a winter animal who did not know spring had come and gone.

Technically I feel total fluidity in writing. I feel there's nothing technically that I can't do the way a certain sort of pianist feels that. But that doesn't mean it comes easily. It doesn't.