Fiction and nonfiction, for me, involve very different processes.

My favorite sports novel is End Zone by Delillo. It's such a great looking book too, the black cover with the football player on it. It's just a fantastic little book.

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.

Another older writer that had a huge influence on me is Chekhov. More contemporarily, it's hard to say.

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

You are skilled. I exhort you.

The effects of MFA programs, and the rise of creative writing instruction more generally, are far more diffuse than people think. Even if you're a writer who has avoided institutions your whole life, you're still going to be reading a lot of writers who have MFAs, and are affiliated with universities.