Even a documentary portrait of a person that tries to be very accurate is shaped by the filmmaker in so many ways.

I try to write about how we live today, how we use language, technology, our bodies.

Even if we try to see people in our lives accurately, it is distorted by our own wants and prejudices and experiences.

If you directly try to write about an idea, it will never be what you imagined. But if you're imagining through the building of sentences, through the characters, and paying attention to avoid ease and comfort yet still thinking about making the sentences work, you will get a shot at some real interesting stuff.

I don't have a lot of skills, but one thing I can do is, I can compartmentalize. I can make that a little world that I can go back to, so I can be a waitress, or I can be a teacher, and then go and work on my book.

I take the outline from a real person as inspiration, but the in-line is totally made up. Which is why I usually invent imaginary names.

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.