I like to buy books for the kids in my family. I guess that's why they call me the 'mean' aunt.

The writer has to take risks and go somewhere full of mystery and possibility for the novel to deepen over the years it takes to write it.

I like to buy books for the kids in my family. I guess that's why they call me the 'mean' aunt.

I like the challenge of creating a world with only sentences.

Your memories from your early childhood seem to have such purchase on your emotions. They are so concrete.

My teaching forces me to articulate what I think works in a piece of fiction and how I think it works. All of that gives me energy as a writer.

The writer has to be brave, I think.