Everything has to be pulling weight in a short story for it to be really of the first order.

Time, which is your enemy in almost everything in this life, is your friend in writing.

We are made to persist. that's how we find out who we are.

Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.

One of the things that draws writers to writing is that they can get things right that they got wrong in real life by writing about them.

The beauty of a fragment is that it still supports the hope of brilliant completeness.

A piece of writing is a dangerous thing," he said. "It can change your life.

Real maturity is the ability to imagine the humanity of every person as fully as you believe in your own humanity.

Memory is funny. Once you hit a vein the problem is not how to remember but how to control the flow.

Most of us dont live lives that lend themselves to novelistic expression, because our lives are so fragmented.

Because I don't have to be careful of people's feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I'm teaching writing.

If you can't handle me with a messy bun, then you don't deserve me with a fabulous blowout.

There’s been a lot written on the topic of minimalism. But I still believe in it.

I rebel

It [freedom] rings bells to remind humanity that the most precious gifts in life––like children and love and time––must never be taken for granted.

Once you lose the honesty in a relationship, I mean, I think you don't have a relationship at all.

The camera cannot lie, but it can be an accessory to untruth.

No Kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave.

So the freshness lives on in a lemon, in the sweet-smelling house of the rind, the proportions, arcane and acerb.

The wind at Candlestick tonight is blowing with great propensity.

Renouncing the worldly pleasures is a comfort for both the human heart and body.