Octavia E. Butler said, “As writers, we should use everything that touches us. It’s all ore to be refined into story...if we’re serious, we do use everything.” As James Baldwin said, great writing involves being able “to use whatever happens to you—from starvation to champagne.”

I appreciate this from Octavia E. Butler. “One of the questions put to us was, ‘How do you want to be remembered?’ ... We don’t have any control over that. It’s not something that I worry about.” “Forget remembered. I just want to be read now.”