Memoir isn't the summary of a life; it's a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition. It may look like a casual and even random calling up of bygone events. It's not; it's a deliberate construction.

Every time you look at a blank piece of paper, you're doing something new. You have to step onto that blank territory and remind yourself the sky didn't fall in the last time you wrote. Writing is a question of overcoming your fears-and everybody has them.

My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.

People read with their ears, whether they know it or not.

There's no sentence that's too short in the eyes of God.

Be grateful for every word you can cut.

Few people realize how badly they write. Nobody has shown them how much excess or murkiness has crept into their style.