When I was writing my first novel, I smoked cigarettes. And when I think about what it was like to smoke, I remember exactly the feeling of sitting in front of my big old computer in that little room where I wrote my first novel.

I do strongly identify with being Jewish. I was raised Orthodox and had a childhood complicated by the fact that my father was deeply religious and my mother was not.

You can start your day over anytime.

We can't protect ourselves from pain and heartache. In fact, to love - fully, madly, deeply - is the ensure heartache some day.

As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness.

I think so much about how we read, about the nature of solitude, and of community, is changing in ways that none of us yet understand.

Success is so fleeting, even if you get a good book deal or your book is a huge success, there's always the fear: What about the next one?