There is a long time in me between knowing and telling.

Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.

... plot, the absolute line between two points which I've always despised. Not for literary reasons, but because it takes all hope away. Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.

To translate a poem from thinking into English takes all night.

‏Don’t live with a lover or roommate who doesn’t respect your work.

Every time you finish something ... you figure you've finally learned to write, right? Then you start something else and it turns out you haven't. You have learned how to write that story, or that book, but you haven't learned how to write the next one.

I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty.

You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else.

I did write a number of reports on my political experiences, but there were many omissions, and I feel bad about that because it was work that was interesting and had I written more about it, it could have been useful.