“If I was writing about an academic or a more difficult person, I would...” — Lydia Davis Quote

“If I was writing about an academic or a more difficult person, I would use the Latinate vocabulary more, but I do think Anglo-saxon is the language of emotion.”

“Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermission? I want the reader to be sort of surprised, to come to each story freshly.”

“I've gotten very alert not just to mixed metaphor but to any writing mistake.”

“As we talk about the need to foster academic achievement, we must recognize and reward those who strive academically, just as we honor athletic champions. Meeting the President of the United States is just the honor we should bestow on our academic champions.”

“There is much more to schools than buildings. There are academic activities, how it reaches the community and its proximity to other programs.”

“I'm a lifelong exerciser, and also an academic with interest in, and access to, research, so I tend to read the research about most things I do regularly.”