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

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.

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.

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

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.

Love is the essence, fragrance, and beauty of life.

Future is an enemy territory

Balance is not a passive resting place—it takes work, balancing the giving and the taking, the raking out and the putting in.

I have many years to get better and better, and that has to be my ambition. The day you think there is no improvements to be made is a sad one for any player.

Monica Seles: I'd hate to be next door to her on her wedding night.

I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the air

It's very hard to lose someone who's the closest person to you in your life.

Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion." (Truvey Jones)

There is nothing like a doorbell to precipitate the potential into the kinetic.

Yancy is actually a Native-American name, but I'm Irish. Go figure.