There are different types of readers. People draw lines at which three things intersect: the character, the author, and the reader.

Why are some people highly principled and willing to do anything for their principles, while most of us are not? And I am willing to not only ask, but also answer the question.

I think ex-Soviet or Russian-Jewish women are tougher and that comes through. And if they are more pragmatic than the men, it's because they are obliged to be. They have all the female responsibilities and all the male responsibilities.

We all have some ideological quotient in ourselves. And I think it does guide who we are.

I believe I'm very conscious of exactly what I'm doing. I'm auditioning lines of dialogue, and I'm interrogating whether the lines would translate from Russian into English the right way. The English that results can perhaps seem somewhat more formal than colloquial, but not so formal as to feel academic.

It's not for the writer to say whether the thing is successful or not.

When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel.