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!

I grew up treating a life as a writer as a career in letters, one devoted to many kinds of writing. And so it seemed normal to study both fiction writing and the literary essay as an undergrad.

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

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.

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

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!

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.