I think we're always in some ways writing to the teachers who gave us early love.

I'm certainly very influenced by what you would call 'contemporary headline horror,' stuff that is true crime or for one reason or another catches our attention in the media, those strange cases that we end up obsessing about. I'm always influenced by weird anecdotes and news.

Plot and scene are still the hardest things for me, though I think they're the building blocks of what makes a story work.

At a certain point, you must be able to slip loose. At a certain point, you found that you had been set free. You could be anyone, he thought. You could be anyone.

I think we're always in some ways writing to the teachers who gave us early love.

Identity issues are hardwired into the way I think about character - it's almost as if I can't get away from them even if I want to.

I was worried that, as a college teacher, if I wrote too much about intergenerational sex my students would be creeped out.