I wanted a baby of color, to be honest, because I wasn't attached to the idea that I look like the biological mother. I liked the idea of the adoption being clear; it was and is not something I am interested in hiding.

The past always sort of haunts us and perhaps inspires us in some ways.

I couldn't really experience being an author when I was still working in publishing - I was trying to negotiate being both. Sometimes the knowledge doesn't translate between the two roles.

Publishing in a way doesn't have a lot to do with writing, and writing doesn't have a lot to do with publishing.

I feel like if writers used writing as therapy we'd have a ton of happy writers.

With domestic adoption, you get a form, you fill it out, and there are these boxes: African-American, African-American and Hispanic, and you check the boxes that you're comfortable with. Race is completely open in that regard.

History releases me from my own experience and jogs my fictional imagination.