I believe that we can access stories, and voices from those around us, more easily often than from our own imperfect memories..

I'll write about California someday, I imagine, but I don't know when..

When I teach, I try to assign writers from whom I can learn..

When you teach, it's sometimes necessary to consciously not write for a month or two - and then pick a time in the future to sink back in. It makes y….

I think it's probably better to make a region your own, and then maybe you can go somewhere else, but a lot of great writers have stuck to one region..

I think narrators expect a high level of intimacy with their readers, and vice versa..

One good thing the teaching has given me is the ability to read and revise my own work..

I think the second, or outsider's, perspective can come as you layer a story. It's as though you've grabbed a secondary character and asked them, "Wh….

I had written about a small hamlet upstate, and had been called into a meeting about my story, which, as it turned out, had upset a lot of people..

I'm always relearning things I thought I'd learned for good a while back..

Being a reporter took me out of myself and that shaped me as a writer..

I think writers tend to hear a different message from the ones our friends and acquaintances intend. We see what's revealed, which makes us dangerous..

I went back into the older stories and reworked them, because I became a better writer over the years and could spot flaws. I loved having another ch….

My characters tend, if wounded, to be emotionally resourceful. Often they're in that way station between when loss happens and when it can be fully c….

Susan Rebecca White has a keen sense for how her characters talk and think. An impressive debut..

I'm suspicious of epiphanies, because they so rarely last..

Of course I'd sometimes have characters from downstate living upstate, but it took a while for me to start writing about where I grew up..

I tend to listen to my friends and family empathetically, and I try to help work through their problems from the inside. I try to adopt their thinkin….

I think one's person's unlikeable is another's lovable..

I think the voice can carry a story..