Some people tell me they would be afraid of my characters, but I tell those people [that] they meet these characters all the time. They just don't care about them when they meet them, at the gas station, the car wash, the post office even.

Men didn't understand that you couldn't let yourself be consumed with passion when there were so many people needing your attention, when there was so much work to do. Men didn't understand that there was nothing big enough to exempt you from your obligations, which began as soon as the sun rose over the paper company and ended only after you'd finished the day's chores and fell exhausted into sleep against the background noise of I-94.

I loved writing for the school newspaper. I liked to report and interview people, but I really liked to write columns, funny columns.

I like to go where the life is.

I enjoy shooting. Around where I live, it's something you do for entertainment once in a while, you go out and shoot targets.

You can't beat a good sonnet, and you can write a sonnet without being married to the damned thing.

That was a mistake, I guess, going out to California. They have these things called guidance counselors in high school. They drink a lot of herbal tea.