Well, my background is journalism. I don't have any creative-writing experience except for one class I took as a sophomore in college.

I always had a hard time with fiction. It does feel like driving a car in a clown suit. You're going somewhere, but you're in costume, and you're not really fooling anybody. You're the guy in costume, and everybody's supposed to forget that and go along with you. Obviously, it can work, it works all the time - well, it doesn't always work. Still, no matter what, I'm always looking at the form and addressing it, not ignoring it.

Morning comes like a scream through a pinhole.

Still though, I think if you're not self-obsessed, you're probably boring.

The only thing that everyone needs to look out for is keeping the students reading through high school and thereafter.

We lose weeks like buttons, like pencils.

I went to Saudi Arabia in 2010, and spent most of my time in Jeddah and the King Abdullah Economic City.