I wasn't doing much work when I was using and drinking. I have friends who did it (work), but I wasn't one of those people.

The least trusted testimony in a court of law is eyewitness testimony. We are simply not good reporters of facts that happen to us, or in front of us. But that's not the same as knowingly lying.

I think the act of lying can be separated from the genre of memoir. Though often times, people are unaware of their own subjectivity.

The biggest thing was that second person allowed me to trick myself into revealing more about myself. It gave me an authorial distance to get closer to the action and emotions, if that makes sense.

I like the fact that second person puts the reader in the story. It makes them, whether they like it or not, complicit in the action.

I think every narrator is an unreliable narrator. In its classic definition - an unreliable narrator is one who reveals something they don't know themselves to be revealing. We all do that.

I like a text that reminds the reader its a text sometimes.

I'd say the music influences the writing - the music and rhythm of the prose - much more than the writing influences the music.

You can't hide behind the guise of fiction. No matter how autobiographical a fictional scene is, you can always tell the reader - in protecting yourself - that you made it up.

I don't teach narrative theory by itself anymore, but I kind of use it when critiquing student manuscripts. So, it works its way in there, whether I like it or not.

My teaching career started with me teaching comp at a very small school in Buffalo. And I was terrible at that point. They never should have hired me.

Love seems to open and expand us right down to the cellular level, while fear causes us to contract and withdraw into ourselves.

You are always free when you have the ability to think.

Husband and wife, must complement each other.

No writer can be the ‘Master of the Words’ without loving them! Loving is the way for Mastering! No Love, no Master!

Let a nation's fervent thanks make some amends for the toils and sufferings of those who survive.

As a songwriter, I don't rush. I may sit on lyrics for two years before the music hits.

Effort supposes resistance.

Regard everyone you meet as the Buddha and you will know 10,000 Buddhas.

To overcome any sort of fear is satisfying, and to overcome it well is even better.

I was latching on to something that was part of my heritage, because many of the slaves who were brought here were Moslems.