Keeping people safe is a story we tell ourselves.

I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.

I saw that my best work was my most personal work, which is odd, because my fiction is very far afield and has nothing to do with my life.

Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined.

Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something.

It's always better to have too much to read than not enough.

The secret is to keep adding voices, adding ideas, and moving things around as you put together your life. If you’re lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day you’re alive.