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

Even more than getting compliments on social media, what I love is when some random stranger says something very funny or insightful about my books, often in 140 characters or less! It's a very casual, low-stakes, non-burdensome way of connecting that I think is fun for both the writer and the reader. And there are a lot of clever people out there who have no connection to publishing.

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.

But I never thought of who he wasn't, I never had to explain or defend him to myself, I didn't even care what we talked about.

Personally, I have never wished I were a male novelist.

Well, I think in my first two novels, both the characters are pretty neurotic, which I would say that I am.

There are a lot of things in the world that are a lot weirder than psychic abilities, that we accept as true.