Most written work is a conversation between the editor and the writer, that the writer essentially fulfills in public, and the editor provides the stage for that to happen as well as the prompts.

With my family background - my parents were both activists - writing about culture and politics came naturally.

My interest in women's voices started when I was in the boys' choir and we were singing in opera choruses. That was my first close-up experience with the female soprano voice. I was amazed at how it could be within the same scale but so different in quality.

I realized that my identity as a novelist was private. Only I knew how much of a novelist I was!

I've been told it's hard to write about singing. I didn't realize that going into it. I might not have tried if I knew!

As I get ready to buy a new computer, I'm stunned at all the many micro drafts, of different chapters and scenes and whatnot, that litter the hard drive.

I have lived for a long time inside a series of coincidences that most people would find implausible in a novel.