My parents showed me by example that they could balance their work and family lives.

To me one of the amazing technologies of writing is the way it can listen in on thoughts. I don't feel that that's natural to other art forms in the same way.

The common, the quotidian, is so much more unyielding to me, really stubborn and hard to work with, and I like this because it makes me think and it makes me worry. I can't just plunge my hand into the meat of it. I need new approaches.

A misspelled word is probably an alias for some desperate call for aid, which is bound to fail.

Fiction becomes a place where I face certain fears such as losing language or losing my children.

Slamming the book shut produces a wind on the face, a weather that is copyrighted by the author, and this wind may not be deployed without permission, nor may the pages be turned without express written permission.

Eventually you stop paying attention to your own feelings when there's nothing to be done about them.