For my own family, I would always choose the makeshift, surrogate family formed by various characters unrelated by blood.

None of my own experiences ever finds its way into my work. However, the stages of my life - motherhood, middle age, etc. - often influence my subject matter.

I spend about a year between novels

I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It's greed, plain and simple.

Odd how clear it suddenly became, once a person had died, that the body was the very least of him.

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.