Research for fiction is a funny thing: you go looking for one piece of information, and find something altogether different.

It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.

I can't listen to music when I'm writing. I like music best in a car or on the train.

I think that the practice of writing every day was what made me remember that writing doesn't have anything to do with publishing books. It can be totally separate and private - a comforting thought.

I've always been a little bit more of a novel reader than a short story reader. I think the first books that made me want to be a writer were novels.

In America you make your plans and then they happen.

Most good fiction also has a character the writer seems to know more deeply than anyone can actually be known in life, but a few unusual writers can make something great without that.

I think, in general, it's better not to respond to reviews of your work.

I like it when someone gives me a new book of poetry by a poet I haven't read.

Alice Munro is a particular kind of short story writer in that she writes long, character-driven short stories.

If somebody says your story is only published because you look nice in the photo, that maybe spurs you on to write.

I hit my knees and I went to him with that and I said God I want to do what you want. I don't want sports to be an idol in my life.

For many, many people, getting married is one of the most important things they will ever do in the pursuit of happiness.

Control your inner dialogue. Talk to yourself positively all the time.

Nuclear is the single greatest threat.

Books are ever available friends, ready to serve you at will.

If you enjoyed high school, you were probably a psychopath or a cheerleader. Or possibly both.

But when researchers at Bell Labs discovered that static tends to come from particular places in the sky, the whole field of radio astronomy opened up.

Say and do something positive that will help the situation; it doesn't take any brains to complain.

I'm not one to blame anyone else for anything. And I don't think anyone else should either.

This is a bit different to the Thursday breakfast I'm used to. It's usually just me and my dog.