“We writers are a crazy group. I can't think of any other profession where the actual work is deep within, uncomfortable, and wanting out.”

“I don’t ask writers about their work habits. I really don’t care. Joyce Carol Oates says somewhere that when writers ask each other what time they start working and when they finish and how much time they take for lunch, they’re actually trying to find out, "Is he as crazy as I am?" I don’t need that question answered.”

“We sometimes think of compassion as ‘kind intention.’ The Gospel writers meant more than that. The word actually means, ‘to have trembling bowels.’ In other words, biblical compassion is such a deep degree of care that it gnaws at your gut.”

“What we don't let out traps us. We think, No one else feels this way, I must be crazy. So we don't say anything. And we become enveloped by a deep loneliness, not knowing where our feelings come from or what to do with them. Why do I feel this way?”

“I am by profession an agent and no writer, so you will have to pardon any lack of literary flourish.”

“We can't know or say what other people do. You have to think what you want to do to get the situation where you want it to be.”