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

I knew it was a risk but what I was after was a novel that is about the feeling that comes with a coincidence in real life - that you feel as if something divine has intervened and has arrived with a message.

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

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

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

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.