Sometimes I write well when I'm very upset.

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.

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

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

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

I get to a certain point, and I think in a novel it's about the third draft, when I want other eyes on it.

I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person.