Writing is like listening to a melody line in my head. Note by note, it knows where it wants to go. I follow it and lay it down. I can pare it, shape it, and polish it later...My job is to take down the dribs and drabs - to free-associate, if you will, knowing that the associations have their own plans for where we're going with all this.

The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (ed. Penguin, 1999) - ISBN: 9781101127834