A day without writing was a little death.
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.
Women who are inclined to write poetry at all are inspired by being mad at something.
Everybody has to write out of rage sometimes.
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.
