Love is the strongest power there is.
I don't want anything to do with anything mechanical between me and the paper, including a typewriter, and I don't even want a fountain pen between me and the paper.
And I really do think that the difficulty of research makes it more real to you than punching a thing to find out how many men were killed at this particular action.
I've never known, at least a modern historical instance, where the truth wasn't superior to distortion in every way.
I took five years on the first volume, five years on the second volume, and ten years on the third volume.
Of all the passions of mankind, the love of novelty most rules the mind. In search of this, from realm to realm we roam. Our fleets come loaded with every folly home.
If you want to study writing, read Dickens
Every writer I admire is my teacher. If you look at it, and if you care to read carefully enough and to read and reread a text, you teach yourself something about craft.
What the whole community comes to believe in grasps the individual as in a vise.
That which is impossible to thee is not impossible to me: I shall save my word in all things and I shall make all things well.
I love fiction. I like reading short stories. Cupcakes, pop songs, Polaroids, and short stories. They all raise and answer questions in a short space. I like Lorrie Moore. Amy Hempel. Tim O'Brien. Raymond Carver. All the heartbreakers.