“Whatever doesn't kill you makes a great story.”

“Every great or even every very good writer makes the world over according to his own specifications.”

“I'm moving to Nevada. Either there or kill myself.”

“My circumstances of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction necessitated the short story form.”

“I think a little menace is fine to have in a story. For one thing, it's good for the circulation.”

“Then I said something. I said, Suppose, just suppose, nothing had ever happened. Suppose this was for the first time. Just suppose. It doesn't hurt to suppose. Say none of the other had ever happened. You know what I mean? Then what? I said.”

“It was [John Gardner's] conviction that if the words in the story were blurred because of the author's insensitivity, carelessness, or sentimentality, then the story suffered from a tremendous handicap. But there was something even worse and something that must be avoided at all costs: if the words and the sentiments were dishonest, the author was faking it, writing about things he didn't care about or believe in, then nobody could ever care anything about it.”