The ways in which a standardized language test induces storytelling, for example, is the opposite of creative writing; you have to learn a logical way to start a story, whereas in creative writing you may begin at the end or begin at the middle of the story.

You're looking for something, I don't know what I'm looking for, but I'm looking. Writing is a lot about that. When you write a poem. When you write a novel.

If you write, and you are really alone (writing is a lonely thing), you learn to be alone without suffering. When you read, you also learn to do this. When you write, you deal with things.

Every story, every poem, every written piece is about belonging. There is a me, there is a we, there is an us, and we want to belong to it or we don't want to belong. You can read every story with this as its main focus.

For me, writing is a way of finding out about things I didn't know before I began writing.

We rely too much on the people we share our lives with. We hold them responsible for things they are not even aware of. We start blaming them.

You can say that literature is about topics like love, death, and all that, but I think there is only one topic that applies to all literature and that is belonging.