“We write or we are written upon. The whole of our lives is the clumsy attempt to wield the pen with grace.”

“Identifying as a writer is a matter of self-acceptance. It's not a thing that can be given to you, or bestowed upon you. You are a writer if you write. That's it. If what you are seeking is to be acknowledged as a writer by other people, many of them strangers, you're in for a demoralizing journey. It is a silly club where those who have been 'accepted' are loathe to permit others into. It's sort of like how we Americans love denying our own immigrant origins while railing against immigration.”

“We write or we are written upon. The whole of our lives is the clumsy attempt to wield the pen with grace.”

“The Lord made no better clock than a child, and none more bitter. Oh, what beautiful clocks they are.”