It is not a camera, or a reporter that makes something real and genuine; more often a camera or a reporter does the opposite.

I just like to inhabit a character really deeply.

I feel like if you read something, and it makes you so curious about a topic that you then go read something else, that's exciting.

I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.

The best part of being a writer for me is immersing myself in a fictional world, which is the opposite of being on social media. At the same time, if no one ever read my work, if I was writing solely for myself, I bet it would be lonely and a lot less fun.

I do think I was trying to entertain the reader more than I was trying to purge myself.

My boarding school experience was the only thing I had strong enough feelings to write about for hundreds and hundreds of pages. I can still smell the formaldehyde of the fetal pigs in biology.