The effects of fame on the not-famous people who are close to a celebrity - this is definitely a topic that continues to interest me.

I think it takes a very generous and tolerant non-famous partner to stick with the famous person, especially if s/he wasn't famous when they first got together. And add to it the fact that the Web makes it extremely easy to meet admirers... well, there are a lot of temptations to be ignored, or else embraced.

So much of what determines our happiness, I believe, is who we choose as our intimates.

Tangentially, Americans, despite many of us being prone to sometimes-eyebrow-raising disclosures about our private lives on social media, still retain what I think of as reactionary views about sexuality and intimacy.

Sometimes I do work on a longer manuscript in tandem with one or two shorter pieces - whether it's a short story or an essay (though I don't write many of the latter).

One thing the passage of time has shown me is that you never know how you'll behave in a situation until you're in that situation yourself.

Mostly what ends up inspiring me and affecting my work are books by authors that I love.