I'm drawn to fiction that hints at nonfiction, that blurs or seems to blur the boundaries between invention and autobiography.

Being a high school teacher was wonderful, but unsustainable: I needed a way out.

I think it's harder to avoid reflection on those larger patterns of history or society when they so insistently call into question your right to exist.

I think history is only ever invisible when it abets your sense of self, your desires, your ambitions, when it carries your life along in a kind of frictionless way.

Where the novel makes use of material from my life it does so because it's aesthetically convenient, not because of any allegiance it has to any verifiable facts.

I went back to graduate school because I wanted to avoid being a professional, to try to piece together a life that would let me avoid the tenure race and full-time teaching.

Whenever I go to New York I try to soak up as much live music as I can, including as many nights at the opera as I can manage.