I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

I must say also that it's never worked to my disadvantage that I have long, blond hair.

I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often a novel I admire, but not all of their works.

The admiration of another writer’s work is almost in inverse proportion to similarities in style.

It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.

When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days.

Also minimalism is a term that all of us who share so little in common and who are lumped together as minimalists are not terribly happy with.