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

That was one of the reasons I became a writer - I never really had that many friends. I would read a lot, and listen to music. And that was my life.

The novel is about, for me, sustained and organized looking. I do think that people have a hunger for a sustained engagement, that concentration that the book can offer.

For me writing is an organic process that starts with engaging the language and then thinking about the structure of the novel as you move along. Especially in revision you start to notice correlations. Things come up, not self-consciously, because you're busy feeling your way through sentences and trying to push the language into new places.

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

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

I want what I write to be deeply engaging and strange and true.