I think the voice can carry a story.

Susan Rebecca White has a keen sense for how her characters talk and think. An impressive debut.

Of course I'd sometimes have characters from downstate living upstate, but it took a while for me to start writing about where I grew up.

When I teach, I try to assign writers from whom I can learn.

I'll write about California someday, I imagine, but I don't know when.

I think it's probably better to make a region your own, and then maybe you can go somewhere else, but a lot of great writers have stuck to one region.

I believe that we can access stories, and voices from those around us, more easily often than from our own imperfect memories.

I think narrators expect a high level of intimacy with their readers, and vice versa.

I tend to listen to my friends and family empathetically, and I try to help work through their problems from the inside. I try to adopt their thinking.

I'm always relearning things I thought I'd learned for good a while back.

I'm suspicious of epiphanies, because they so rarely last.

Silence is the music of the heart.

...and he had to have freedom-not even that, just to read and sleep in peace, without a uniform-sooner still.

My attitude on skis is different now. I have learned to put less pressure on myself and on the edges of my skis when I'm racing, to be keep myself more under control.

Flatter not thyself in thy faith in God if thou hast not charity for thy neighbor.

Because if we the storytellers don't do this, then the bad people will win.

Adult dragons are,astute,powerful,and sure of their strength.

If the Constitution was a movie, the Preamble would be the trailer, the First Amendment the establishing shot, the 13th the crowd pleaser and the 14th the ultimate hero scene.

Method Man, for him to offer me the spot as the first Jewish member of the Wu Tang Clan, you know, was an honor.

I find myself watching cable and television much more than going to the movies.

I know the youth of India. They are not merely asking for things. The youth wants to stand of their own feet and live a life of pride and dignity.