You have to write fiction that mirrors the actual world, which has people of all sorts in it.

Truly things are better in general now, in America, than in the past.

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

I don't have the courage not to write all the time.

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

I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts.