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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.