There seems to be a tremendous desire among many people now to know authors and how they work, to know what's autobiographical and what isn't.

When an editor first explained to me the difference between direct and indirect writing, I just thought it was a stylistic choice.

Censorship is all around us, I don't think it's innate.

Somehow we have to detach from feeling as though money is a quick and easy standard by which we can gauge how well we're doing.

I don't think a white person can write accurately and convincingly about what black people experience of oppression.

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

Sometimes I write well when I'm very upset.