I could teach. I could wait tables. I could cook in a restaurant. Food and teaching were the two skills I had.

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.

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.

Fiction is always really a labor.

I'm very sentimental about lobsters. The last lobster I ate was the only lobster I cooked.

It is said the sesta is one of the only gifts the Europeans brought to South America, but I imagine the Brazilians could have figured out how to sleep in the afternoon without having to endure centuries of murder and enslavement.

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