When I was four I thought everything in TV was just TV, then I was five and Ma unlied about lots of it being pictures of real and Outside being total….

Stories are a different kind of true..

You cannot predict literary success; the only way you can possibly aim for it is to do your thing and do it well..

The sound of the pages turning was the sound of magic. The dry liquid feel of paper under fingertips was what magic felt like..

Me and Ma have a deal, we're going to try everything one time so we know what we like..

Everybody's damaged by something..

...real loneliness is having no one to miss. Think yourself lucky you've known something worth missing..

Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons..

And as the years flowed by, some villagers told travelers of a beast and a beauty who lived in the castle and could be seen walking on the battlement….

In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time...I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well….

The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side..

It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” When a bit of me hurts, I always mind..

Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you." I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me..

I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad..

Writing stories is my way of scratching that itch: my escape from the claustrophobia of individuality. It lets me, at least for a while, live more th….

I found motherhood a crash course in existentialism (what is my purpose in life, am I mistress or slave of my destiny, when the hell do I get some sl….

Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing..

When I was a little kid I thought like a little kid, but now I'm five I know everything.

There's not a thing wrong with you, you're right the whole way through..

If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could..

There are some tales not for telling, whether because they are too long, too precious, too laughable, too painful, too easy to need telling or too ha….