We're surrounded by mandates, and I believe that literature should be mandate-free. I feel very strongly about that.

I personally am inclined to approach [housework] the way governments treat dissent: ignore it until it revolts.

What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, 'What life can I live that will let me breathe in & out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?

It seems very safe to me to be surrounded by green growing things and water.

I don't bring expectations to any of my books. I don't tell people what to do. I want to invite them in.

A woman without a man -- a condition of 'manlessness' -- is defined as alone. But a single mother is less alone than the average housewife.

Because I write fiction that is based in the real world, it's going to lead people into some of the modern dilemmas and concerns and even catastrophes that they will think about in a new way.