Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

I was always on time, I did my work to exact specifications, I spoke when spoken to.

You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person to your husband or a bad friend.

It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.

That's the way I work. I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down.

Whenever I saw her, I felt like I had been living in another country, doing moderately well in another language, and then she showed up speaking English and suddenly I could speak with all the complexity and nuance that I hadn't realized was gone. With Lucy I was a native speaker.

My writing process has changed because it's harder to find uninterrupted time.