Even murderers, I suppose, experience the loss of car keys the way the rest of us do. I mean, how can they not? Once you make this person scramble around the house looking for her car keys and finally find them, get in the car, and run into traffic, we can identify with her enough that when she stops the car and pulls the gun out of her purse and heads in to kill somebody, we'll be with her as much as is possible.

When an editor first explained to me the difference between direct and indirect writing, I just thought it was a stylistic choice.

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

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

Being part of a community of writers is huge. I really think that's why people go to MFA programs.

I don't think a white person can write accurately and convincingly about what black people experience of oppression.

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.