I'm feeling how profoundly my family disappointed me and in the end how I retreated, how I became nothing, because that was much less risky than attempting to be something, to be anything in the face of such contempt.

If you don’t write the book you have to write, everything breaks.

You really can't write well if you're thinking about what the reviewers might say.

I'm nothing you can catch now. I am black powder, I am singe, I am the bomb that bursts the night.

I once jokingly told someone that every book is like a relationship. They're four or five years long - that's not so bad. They're serious. They demand a lot of attention. But I remember thinking that I wanted to have one with someone who's not so crazy and peculiar and demanding.

The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable.

I'm very interested in compassion - compassion for oneself and others. I write about very complicated characters and experiences and try to do it without judging the character or the action.