[I]t's the child writer who has figured out, early on, that writing is about saving your soul.

The world doesn't fully make sense until the writer has secured his version of it on the page. And the act of writing is strangely more lifelike than life.

But in my experience, a writer gravitates toward a certain form or genre because, like a well-made jacket, it suits him.

There is nothing more refreshing for an editor than to meet a writer or read a query that takes him completely by surprise

There comes a time when you have to let go of the New Yorker fantasy in service of justing getting on with it [writing].

Beware of all writers who substitute initials for their give names -