The more I think about my stories, the more I try to understand them, the less sense they make.
Read MorePleasing me, it turns out, is no one’s job but mine.
Read MoreThere’s something within you that can’t quit.
Read MoreThe sitting and the staring and the typing all feel the same.
Read MoreI’d received plenty of bad news in my life. Sometimes the news came from my agent, sometimes from a doctor, sometimes from a girlfriend.
Read MoreI think everyone wants to be entertained, and everyone also wants to know why life is worth living.
Read MoreThere was something holy to me about the raised proscenium and the rows of chairs and the lights above.
Read MoreWriting is a way of stepping back from our thoughts and beliefs and experiences so that we can see them accurately.
Read MoreDon’t write from fear; it’s a shallow source of motivation.
Read MoreMy main job when teaching is to remind my students that they are perfectly equipped to tell any story the want to tell.
Read MoreThat guy taking care of stuff, the domestic Bill, the busy Bill – I don’t think of him as the real me anymore.
Read MoreAll the blank page wants to know is what you’re most interested in right now.
Read MoreThere is something more powerful than a good review or a clever Instagram post or even the recommendation of a friend at play when stories and lovers are found.
Read MoreTo see a memory or a moment without judgment, to just behold it, is to glimpse the totality and integrity of the world
Read MoreEvery detail in the story is there only to serve it, and the story serves the author, who also serves it in the telling.
Read MoreWhat we call inequality is a lack of kindness, which everyone has experienced in solitude at some point.
Read MoreIf there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s what I love.
Read MoreBy all means, fill your stories with conflict. But do so with a purpose.
Read MoreThe only thing I can be really certain about is what I like right now, and even that requires some focus.
Read MoreWriting, at its best, is the practice of looking for what we want exactly where it is.
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