We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think.

There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.

I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.

In many cultures, women are sometimes literally kept from learning to read or from going to school.

I think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves.

Inevitably we start by thinking that if our work is any good, we'll get money. It's as we would if you started up a business or if you work in another profession.

I began to see, again and again, stories that were first confusing and second where the emotional impact was muted because the big scene came before the explanation of what was going on. There was a reverse chronological order as well as a concealment of what exactly was going on. I think often that comes out of the fear of being boring, and sometimes I think it's just an attempt to seem clever.