I've never had any interest in retelling stories from my youth.

There's a lot of dark stuff from the '80s that we don't think about.

I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland in 1988 and there was just one year where suddenly all of the delivery kids that used to be boys were suddenly girls. It happened at our church too. Altar boys were suddenly altar girls. There was just this sense that all these young women knew there were openings here to be the first of their kind.

When a man carries an instrument of violence, he'll always find the justification to use it.

To try and imagine that I'm another person is always going to be hard - whether I'm writing about a truck driver or someone who is gay, who's trans, who is of a different ethnicity or creed. But it would be boring if I always had to write about myself and my limited viewpoint.

Your own creations are your own children; you gave life to them, so you'll always have, if not more passion to them, more connections to them.

I grew up with a sister I was very close with and a mom who was a powerful influence on my life. I was always close with women.