It's easy when you grow up in fear to act out of fear. I don't want to embrace that fear; I prefer to be kind.

Novels should be judged rigorously. Either a book works or it doesn't. The fact that something is true in the real world should not lend authority to it in fiction.

It is hard to write about physically difficult things without causing the reader to disengage.

Exposition suggests a great trust in the reader, and this expression of trust makes a book feel tender.

Certainly the details of our life are unique. Spending time thinking of how I am different from someone else, however, does not tend to be very productive.

For me, a memoir is nonfiction and nonfiction has to be absolutely true.

I need to tell the things that are important but which don't make sense in terms of the narrative, things that would destroy symmetry or narrative pace. This is my personal belief about what it means to write nonfiction.