This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

He said if I wanted to be a better writer, I was the only person who could push myself to do it. It was up to me to challenge myself, to be vigilant about finding the places in my own work where I was just getting by. “You have to ask yourself,” he said to me, “if you want to write great literature or great television.”

My divorce began less than a week before we were married.

There can be something cruel about people who have had good fortune. They equate it with personal goodness.

It’s a wonderful thing to find a great teacher, but we also have to find him or her at a time in life when we’re able to listen to and trust and implement the lessons we are given.

the more we are willing to separate from distraction and step into the open arms of boredom, the more writing will get on the page.

Not only did I learn how to write a novel in Provincetown, I found the perfect person to read it. Elizabeth McCracken was another of the writing fellows at the Work Center that season, and she lived three houses away from me. If I looked out my kitchen window I could see if her light was on. Sometimes you don’t realize what’s lacking in life until

Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art you must master the craft. If you want to write, practice writing. Practice it for hours a day, not to come up with a story you can publish, but because you long to learn how to write well, because there is something that you alone can say.

Grace Paley was pushing us to be better people when we were still young and capable of change.

the most affirming thing anyone can do for you is demand that you push yourself further, show you the range of what you can do.