If you write something you’re afraid someone will read, you’re probably going in a good direction.

*

Stories don’t start with a meaning. [The writer] starts with observations, questions, fascinations, places, memories . . . Only later, at some point in the revision process, do you start to figure out what the story’s about.

*

Language makes sense and it’s musical, so it combines reason and passion.

*

Place needs its witnesses, people who can see it and say: This is what it was like for me. You—in this time and place—will never be repeated, and that’s worth writing about.