Every once in a while someone says, 'You can't really learn anything, if you're really a writer then you wouldn't need to do it.' But I think what people need is the sense of not being alone. They go to MFA programs to be part of a community of people who care, and then you start caring about your friend who is trying to edit a magazine and your other friend who is stuck in the middle of her poem. There you have all kinds of things to worry about besides your own success.

Inevitably we start by thinking that if our work is any good, we'll get money. It's as we would if you started up a business or if you work in another profession.

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

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

There's the belief that we can't be smart enough to write. And certainly censorship of women, too.

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