I am, it seems, interested in people with multiple identities. I think we all have multiple identities.

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

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.

My teaching exists in a different part of my brain. However, I am lucky enough to teach very smart graduate students.

I think most writers have to have a practice of writing. For me it is very early in the morning. I try to make it a separate world from the rest of my life.

When I write characters, I need to hear their voice. As soon as I get them speaking, and I feel how they use language, I understand who they are and what they want.

In order to be a living, breathing thing, a novel has to be failed in some kind of way. Or at least that's how I keep writing them.