The people are maybe still as aware of the differences but they are more accepting of it that what we saw in the 70s and 80s, but the undercurrent is still there. There are maybe no racial slurs anymore, no firecrackers in mailboxes, the distinction is much more subtle.

I think this is something that is naturally built in in people, a need for attention and a need to be special and we are always trying to find a balance.

There is something about Midwest in general, that has kind of an underdog quality.

What made something precious? Losing it and finding it.

I would never tell myself, you have to write 20 pages today or something. But I do try to show up. Read what I wrote, fix things.

The writer's job, after all, is not to dictate meaning, but to give the reader enough pieces to create his or her own satisfying meaning. The story is truly finished—and meaning is made—not when the author adds the last period, but when the reader enters the story and fills that little ambiguous space, completing the circuit, letting the power flow through.

I'd like to think of my self as not melancholic at all, I think I'm a pretty cheerful person, really.