If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble.

Geniuses have the shortest biographies.

I’m not a writing group member, not a joiner in that way. I don’t seek a wide swath of feedback.

When you are the woman upstairs, nobody thinks of you first. Nobody calls you before anyone else, or sends you the first postcard. Once your mother dies, nobody loves you “best of all.” It's a small thing, you might think, and maybe it depends on your temperament, maybe for some people it's a small thing, but for me [...]

An abiding preoccupation for me is how much of our lives are invisible and unknown by other people like the Chekhov story The Lady With the Little Dog.

I've always felt that if a project seems easy, or even attainable, why pursue it? I'll always find the hardest path.

I measure my life out in books." "You should be measuring your life by living. Correction: you shouldn't be measuring your life. What's the point?