"I went home with the resolve to write what I knew and to trust my own thoughts and feelings and to not look outside myself. I was not in school anymore: I could say what I wanted."

“In a rainstorm, everyone quickly runs down the street with umbrellas, raincoats, newspapers over their heads. Writers go back outside in the rain with a notebook in front of them and a pen in hand. They look at the puddles, watch them fill, watch the rain splash in them.”

“You tell the truth and you depict it in detail.”

“Push yourself beyond when you think you are done with what you have to say. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.”

“If you want a room to write in, just get a room. Don't make a big production out of it. If it doesn't leak, has a window, heat in the winter, then put in your desk, bookshelves, a soft chair, and start writing.”

“Use original detail in your writing. Life is so rich, if you can write down the real details of the way things were and are, you hardly need anything else.”

“Anything we fully do is an alone journey. You are alone when you write a book. Accept that and take in any love and support that is given to you, but don't have expectations of how it is supposed to be.”