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

Every now and then, you find a book that feels like it was keyed to your DNA.

Everyone would tell me they couldn't identify with sexual abuse. No one says they can't identify with the tales of the Greek gods and goddesses because they don't live on Mt. Olympus.

The way some were entrapped into lives of prostitution, the way that something like marriage could rob them of their rights.

Whenever people say a coincidence in a novel is implausible, I think, Do I have a story for you.

The idea of a talent that was bigger than an artist's ability to choose to use it, that would dictate the artist's life more than the artist could dictate, was interesting to me.

PhD, MFA, self-taught - the only things you must have to become a writer are the stamina to continue and a wily, cagey heart in the face of extremity, failure, and success.