A touch of science, even bogus science, gives an edge to the superstitious tale.

The makers of the short story have rarely been good novelists.

Life — how curious is that habit that makes us think it is not here, but elsewhere.

All writers - all people - have their stores of private and family legends which lie like a collection of half-forgotten, often violent toys on the floor of memory.

Well, youth is the period of assumed personalities and disguises. It is the time of the sincerely insincere.

Some writers thrive on the contact with the commerce of success; others are corrupted by it. Perhaps, like losing one's virginity,it is not as bad (or as good) as one feared it was going to be.

Short stories can be rather stark and bare unless you put in the right details. Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.