Tobias Wolff

“The human heart is a dark forest.”

“We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are.”

“Knowing is not enough. You must engage the facts with your imagination. Only then can you find meaning.”

“Fear has a smell, as love does.”

“To be a writer is to be a reader.”

“Stories are not just entertainment... They are, I believe, one of our most important tools for survival.”

“It is in the nature of people to want to believe, to be open to the possibility of the miraculous.”

“Memory has its own story to tell.”

“When we are alone, we are least alone.”

“What we are, when we are writing, is a kind of thief.”

“The first draft is a skeleton... just bare bones. The writer's job is to create the flesh and blood of a living thing.”

“We're all time's captives, hostages to eternity.”

“A true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.”

“I write to make sense of my life.”

“The best stories are the ones that are true.”

“Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.”