Most written work is a conversation between the editor and the writer, that the writer essentially fulfills in public, and the editor provides the stage for that to happen as well as the prompts.

Each source that I read, I would look through the bibliography and the footnotes, and use that as a map for the next thing I would read.

Every now and then, you find a book that feels like it was keyed to your DNA.

Everyone would tell me they couldn't identify with sexual abuse. No one says they can't identify with the tales of the Greek gods and goddesses because they don't live on Mt. Olympus.

Writers aren't born, they're made - from practice, reading, and a lot of caffeine.

I have lived for a long time inside a series of coincidences that most people would find implausible in a novel.

PhD, MFA, self-taught - the only things you must have to become a writer are the stamina to continue and a wily, cagey heart in the face of extremity, failure, and success.

Whenever people say a coincidence in a novel is implausible, I think, Do I have a story for you.

I had a naiveté that I would remember the things that I had written already, but I was getting lost in the forest of my own ideas and having to find my way out.

The myth works to make the very real things people don't want to look at visible for them.

As I get ready to buy a new computer, I'm stunned at all the many micro drafts, of different chapters and scenes and whatnot, that litter the hard drive.

Fact One: Races are won or lost in key moments. Fact Two: Success in the sport is, above all else, about enduring suffering.

When you aren't open to grow

Unity is not agreeing with each other about God. Rather it is agreeing with God about each other.

That's not water. That's socialism juice. We should bomb Lake Erie.

No shade no shine no butterflies no bees No fruits no flowers no leaves no birds November!

Denzel Washington's career is an enormous luxury. Compare him to Wesley Snipes.

It would be strange if we came to shun the genuine simply because it resembled the counterfeit.

I always want to read the script before I totally commit.

If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all they’d have ter do would be ter follow the spiders. That’d lead ‘em right! That’s all I’m sayin’.

I passed out in our front yard. But honey, don't turn out the light, cause I think I'm in the mood for love tonight.