For many years I didn't have health insurance.

The novel has always been the form that incorporates other forms. For me, it has always been the ultimate medium.

I think the MFA programs have had a real effect on the state of American fiction, but I don't think it's a question of "this is written by someone with an MFA, and this isn't." I challenge anyone to identify a book in that way. It's totally impossible.

You are skilled. I exhort you.

I sold a book six years after I left an MFA program. In between, there was a lot of endurance of poverty and a lot of fighting off doubt. It's all a part of the process of being or becoming a writer.

The challenge for any fiction writer is that your job involves simply sitting at a desk for a very, very long time.

I tended to write the book in these bursts of two or three months at a time. So I would know, or at least feel securely, that for the next few months I was at least going to have a few hours a day.