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?

I believe that, in an ideal world, writers would feel free to write what matters to them without having to consider success, failure, the market, etc.

If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble. We read to find life, in all its possibilities. The relevant question isn’t ‘Is this a potential friend for me?’ but ‘Is this character alive?'

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

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

The more accurately one can illuminate a particular human experience, the better the work of art.

We live in a funny time, a funny era, when desire, to be adult desire, has to be conceived as sexual. And that didn't used to be the case. Sexuality is a social construction as much as anything else and I think the realities of sexuality don't always fit into the social constructions that we have, and we live in a goal-oriented time - on all fronts.