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There are certain defects which well mounted glitter like virtue itself.

Only one constant existed: I wrote. Writing was my center of gravity.

Mentors can suggest to you what more you are capable of.

Heaven preserve me from the Epidemic of a Proud Ignorance!

The future of the book began to appear among imaginary woods.

It helped me free myself from a longtime source of unhappiness.

Henry Chinaski is just so deplorable and lovable; he makes me laugh.

Love is the difference between a full life and an empty one.

This is kind of a big, wet valentine, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you throw it out?

Favorite character? What a question. It’s like choosing a favorite child.

I’m obsessed with finding a convertible that has enough room.

Love enlarges. What you put out into the world, you get back tenfold.

I usually get my best writing done at night or at the close of day.

Don’t write what you know. Write what you can imagine.

I once heard in a sermon, “Choose the important over the urgent.”

I’ve found that love has provided my life’s happiest moments.

A friend of my father’s once told me, “You’ll never be a writer.”

I know now not to measure my insides against others’ outsides.

“Nobody asked you to write.” Over time, I realized it was a magic key.

Love is not something you wait for passively, but a practice.

The Great Gatsby had an awful, detrimental effect on me.

One of my stories was rejected by a journal as “theatrical and self-limiting.”

I’ve read this novel at various stages of my life and I feel as if I know Isabel.

In real life, my favorite character, so to speak, is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Art doesn’t conform to a capitalist’s ratio of productivity to time.

My grandmother read one of my early stories and warned—don’t force your muse.

I don’t own a smartphone and never will. I’ve never sent a text.

I’m a big fan of then. A novel needs a lot of thens.

I love talking to girls. That’s why I’ve written so much about them.