Obviously the bar is much higher now for a behavior to be scandalous. Social media has really changed the way people live. It's not a new impulse; it's just being enacted in a new way.

... nothing broke my heart like the slow death of a shared joke that had once seemed genuinely funny.

I feel like as I've gotten older I've unfortunately come to the decision that a lot of people who seem normal and boring maybe are normal and boring.

Well, I think that if you sincerely try to imagine what life is like for another person - not in a mocking way, not in a satirical way, but in a sincere, compassionate way - I don't think that's exploitive.

What greater happiness is there than the privilege of being bored together?

I wanted my life to start - but in those rare moments when it seemed like something might actually change, panic shot through me.

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