Bobbie Ann Mason quotes:

I've always found it difficult to start with a definite idea, but if I start with a pond that's being drained because of a diesel fuel leak and a cow named Hortense and some blackbirds flying over and a woman in the distance waving, then I might get somewhere.

One reason to fashion a story is to lift a grudge.

One day I was counting the cats and I absent-mindedly counted myself.