As much as in many ways I lament getting older, I value it because I have lost certain things and there are opportunities that won't come back, and there are people I won't see again. What's taken away enriches me, which is the opposite of what I felt when I was young and felt I had to have everything at once. You don't even know what to do with what you have.—Ehud Havazelet, interviewed by Eric Wasserman

One can't for instance just describe what he/she had for breakfast and call it a story, even though eating breakfast is a human experience. What all stories must have, I think, is a central happening. If nothing really happens, then you don't have a short story.—Melanie Bishop

I'm interested in the emotional and psychological dimension of the struggle to be good, to live an ethically responsible life. I'm interested in how shockingly difficult it is to be good.—Carrie Brown, interviewed by Jennifer Levasseur and Kevin Rabalais

It's important to read the classics and to have some books that you carry close to your heart. I want these books to be my companions when I work. This doesn't mean that if you learn from the masters that you can write like them. That's impossible. You always have to be yourself.—Ha Jin, interviewed by interviewed by Jennifer Levasseur and Kevin Rabalais

I did finally just start writing, and I can't actually account for that, except that I've always ben such a passionate reader. I loved reading and loved books and wanted to write, but I didn't understand how anyone became a writer.—Andrea Barrett, interviewed by Sarah Anne Johnson

To subscribe, click here!