I Think I Would Have Died If

I Tell My Students You Have An Absolute Right To Write About People You Know And Love. You Do. But The Kicker Is You Have A Responsibility To Make The Characters Large Enough That You Will Not Have Sinned Against Them.

I Was Born In 1949, And By The Time I Was 10, I Figured Out That My Hope Chest Was Not Aimed In The Same Direction Everybody Else's Was. And That Life Was Going To Be Very, Very Complicated. And That I Could Either Be Provocative And Declamatory, Or Shy, Retiring And Scared.

It's Fun To Tease People About Where Fiction And Life Intersect.

I Am The Only One Who Can Tell The Story Of My Life And Say What It Means.

I'll Tell You The Secret. When You Begin With A Character, You Want To Begin By Creating A Villain.