We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.

At that time in my life, no conclusion was a bad conclusion. Something ended, and you stopped wishing and worrying. You could consider your mistakes, and you might be embarrassed by them, but the box was sealed, the door was shut, you were no longer immersed in the confusing middle.

Of course a magazine is usually more interesting than a conversation, because so much more time and preparation has gone into it.

The fact is that in this day and age I don't think any novelist can assume that a book will get attention.

People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination

When I was writing my first two books I was also freelancing and teaching and doing other odd jobs.

Perhaps fiction has, for me, served a similar purpose--what is a narrative arc if not the imposition of order on disparate events?--and perhaps it is my avid reading that has been my faith all along.