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

Sometimes I write well when I'm very upset.

I had never written about what it's like to live the life of a writer, and I had never read a book that combined talking about the life of writing and how you can do it, how you can stand it, how you can emotionally manage it, with the choices that we all make on the page.

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

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

It's a scary thing for fiction writers, when you're always writing from the point of view both as and for someone who is different.

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.