"Stories are artifacts, not really made things which we create and can take credit for, but pre-existing objects which we dig up."

"The book is not the important part. The book is the delivery system. The important part is the story and the talent."

"But there's one thing I'm sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this."

"When the reader hears strong echoes of his or her own life and beliefs, he or she is apt to become more invested in the story."

"Politics always change. Stories never do."

"Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story."

"When I start a story, I don't know where it's going."

"I never have a thematic intention at the outset. The story informs the theme for me rather than the other way around. But as it happens, this is, at least to a degree, about getting old and the rapid passage of our lives."

"...my basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves."

"Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke and a story's just a story"