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

Other things awaited. It was good to be young and to know it for once. So much unfolding to do.

Looking at and shaping your own work is a very intuitive process. You see something you've written in your notebook. It's there on the page and either feels right or it doesn't, and it's hard sometimes to go beyond that and discover why it feels that way.

Getting your foot in the door with some publishing people can be important when you're starting out as a writer, but it's also not enough to get you where you need to be.

To my parents, writing seemed precarious and not the best idea.

I feel like every time I start up, it's like a truck you have to get into 15th gear, so you very solely crank into that mental space where you feel really immersed in the world of the book and then you can just kind of go.

... people loved to suffer, as long as the suffering made sense. Everybody suffered. The key was to choose the form of your suffering.