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.

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

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 think the voice can carry a story.

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.

This dissociation from the body extends to emotional disengagement. Without access to his feelings a man can’t help but lose track of who he is, what his priorities are and what is normal for him.

If you worry about missing the boat, remember the Titanic!

After you've seen behind the facade of a stage set you can't take the play seriously any more. You can't go backwards and regain your ignorance

Mistakes could be improved if, It hits on Heart

I have turned down a lot of garbage lately.

Secrets are more powerful when people know you've got them.

How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.

My brothers and sisters, may the spirit of love which comes at Christmas time fill our homes and our lives and linger there long after the tree is down and the lights are put away for another year.

People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.