I didn't have to say it. I just had to write it. It was painful enough.
I did what most writers do when something happens that's overwhelming, fascinating, moving, all of that. I didn't know what else to do about it except write about it.
A day without writing was a little death.
Everybody has to write out of rage sometimes.
Women who are inclined to write poetry at all are inspired by being mad at something.
When you're a writer and something difficult happens to you, one of the things involved in that is this emergence of narrative potential. And there's then a kind of self-consciousness about telling a story in which you suffered.
But with writers, there's nothing wrong with melancholy. It's an important color in writing.
I am no Poet here; my pen's the spout where the rain water of my eyes run out.
Each book I write is a shout into the silence and a prayer and a plea for change.
There were songs I would write about breaking up with somebody before I broke up with them, months and months before I broke up with them.
Each night about this time he puts on sadness like a garment and goes on writing.
I haven't personally in my real life had many people close to me die, but my characters have, and I've had to live that as though it's real. And it can take a really big emotional toll on someone.
