I do whatever is necessary in order to maintain the equanimity we all need to withstand the disappointment and rejection that are the lot of every writer, no matter where we are in our careers.

What's more important that spiritual life? It seems to me it's the bedrock of everything essential about being human.

It is only with distance that we are able to turn our powers of observation on ourselves, thus fashioning stories in which we are characters.

We don't choose what's going to wake us up.

I never troll for material. It simply presents itself, and is always unmistakable. This is why I want to roll my eyes when people interrupt themselves in the middle of some story they're telling me to say, "You know you can't write about this."

We are tyrannized by our options.

I'm an urban person who loves living in the country.