My parents had very high expectations. They expected me to get straight A's from the time I was in kindergarten.

Whenever my mother talks to me, she begins the conversation as if we were already in the middle of an argument.

For woman is yin, the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. And man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds.

Memory feeds imagination.

Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.

I don't steer clear of genres. I simply haven't steered myself toward some of them.

I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life.