The making of fiction takes literally what is suggested by our imagination.

Anyone with an imagination can write about the day-to-day experiences of someone he or she is not.

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

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 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.

Sometimes indirect style and varying chronology is great, but quite often I've seen it be just something that gets in the way. It turns out when I talk to the writer that she or he, and more often it's a woman, that she's worried.