No book can ever be finished. While working on it we learn just enough to find it immature the moment we turn away from it

Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writing for when they scrawl their names in the snow.

A new word. Bright with possibilities. A flawless pearl to turn over and over in my hand, then put away for safekeeping.

Writing for me is a kind of compulsion, so I don't think anyone could havemade me do it, or prevented me from doing it.

Beginnings are so important. Just finding that right moment to introduce this character, this world, it’s everything.

If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.

Everywhere I go, I am asked if I think university stifles writers. My opinion is that it doesn't stifle enough of them.

Don't judge it. Just write it. Don't judge it. It's not for you to judge it.Interview in Esquire Magazine 10/10

Academics love to make theories about a body of work, but each book consumes the writer and is the sum of his or her world.

You don't need to wait for inspiration to write. It's easier to be inspired while writing that while not writing...

Ah yes, the head is full of books. The hard part is to force them down through the bloodstream and out through the fingers.

I was certain t find the familiar sting of salt, but what I needed to know was what kind: kitchen, sweat, tears or the sea.

Writers seek to create order out of the chaos of everyday life, and to extract meaning from both the tragic and the mundane

The task of the artist at any time is uncompromisingly simple — to discover what has not yet been done, and to do it.

It is easy to write a check if you have enough money in the bank and writing comes more easily if you have something to say