In Vineyard Haven, on Martha's Vineyard, mostly I love the soft collision here of harbor and shore, the subtly haunting briny quality that all small towns have when they are situated on the sea

The writer's duty is to keep on writing.

The stigma of self-inflicted death is for some people a hateful blot that demands erasure at all costs.

I think that one of the compelling themes of fiction is this confrontation between good and evil.

Through the healing process of time-and through medical intervention or hospitalization in many cases-most people survive depression which may be its only blessing; but to the tragic legion who are compelled to destroy themselves there should be no more reproof attached than to the victims of terminal cancer.

Writing is a form of self-flagellation.

For a person whose sole burning ambition is to write - like myself - college is useless beyond the Sophomore year.