I'm very secretive. I'll write a whole novel and revise it, which might take me two years or more, and the people I know best don't know what I'm writing about.

We have to give our poor, innocent, and undeserving-of-our-badness characters trouble in order to make them characters in a story.

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

I think you have to remember that writing is hard; my first editor used to say that to me.

Sometimes it's interesting to see what people who have too much control need to do to write freely.

There seems to be a tremendous desire among many people now to know authors and how they work, to know what's autobiographical and what isn't.

I find that I get very excited about what my students are up to and that I get to be the hurdle they need to jump over.