I think we need to develop the courage to write from the viewpoint of people who may seem quite different from ourselves, who might have a different sexual orientation or a different race or a different ethnicity.

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

Teaching is very important to me, and it has become more important as I get older.

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

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.

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

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