There are many stories I've wanted to write that I'm simply not able to - sometimes I haven't found the way in yet, and it doesn't matter how hard I try.

There's definitely a magical quality to writing that can't be explained. I can write something I love in two days, or I can work on a story every day for months and it never comes together.

I've learned so much from my professors and have been fortunate to have had so many good ones, including Frederick and Steven Barthelme, Edward Carey, Jim Magnuson, and Elizabeth McCracken.

I want to be able to discuss craft but I also want to teach writers to trust their instincts and learn to listen to themselves above all others.

You don't need a dead father to explain a character's sadness. And impressing yourself with wit/cleverness often feels like what it is - authorial intrusion.

To be a good at something you have to be intelligent like an elephant, sly like a fox and patient like a camel.

What is it about me that gets them all crying? It’s not the end of the world.

The human heart is the only thing whose worth increases the more it is broken.

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they find to laugh at.

The man slips along the stoically congealed houses Perpendicular like them A moving ornament Burning fiction His fragility contradicts the duration of his torments

God and I have a great relationship, but we both see other people.

Why hasn't anyone opened a night club named 'No Drugs Allowed, Wink, Wink'?

There is so much more knowledge than most people realize about how to maximize the benefits of play and minimize the potential harms.

When your kid is being selfish or greedy and you want to help them not be that way, you have to find a way to articulate it and inspire them.

Wisdom is considered a sign of weakness by the powerful because a wise man can lead without power but only a powerful man can lead without wisdom.