I do different work, teaching and running around visiting universities and bookstores, and that prevents me from writing. But it's nice to be wanted as a writer.

Mostly the natural landscapes work as a sounding board for my characters, so they can understand themselves, and it acts as a mirror in which we readers see ourselves. The natural world is the place into which all my characters have to situate themselves in order to be who they really are, and that makes my rural fiction feel different from a lot of urban fiction.

Drugs and drinking affect every family I know, country and city, middle-class and poor.

I always felt a weird obligation to be adventurous.

I figure that I'm always going to be fine, one way or another, but I do worry about other people who have difficulty moving from one world to the next. It's the folks who are truly invested in their lives who have the hardest time with change.

I can't personally drink or fight too much nowadays because I have to be perky in the morning in order to write.

Donkeys are the most misunderstood and abused animals around the world.