I am a gay writer, absolutely. And in no way does that fact limit the reach or importance of what I write.

A Heart So White is simply one of the best novels I know. I'm also thrilled by Javier Marías sentences, by how elegant they are while also being so permissive in relation to the niceties of grammar and so open to the prospect of surprise. He's a genius.

Woolf is an important writer for me, someone I read often and who forms part of my ideal of what literature can do.

I hope that the relationship of the title to the novel [ What Belongs To You] gets more complex with each section of the book: that maybe it begins by resonating with the question of prostitution - to what extent can a body be commodified, what exactly are you renting or purchasing when you pay for sex - and deepens over the course of the book to address larger questions of ownership and belonging.

Even though I don't sing any more, singing was my first education in the arts, and it's clear to me that my training as a musician also shaped me as a writer.

Bulgaria is a fascinating, beautiful, difficult country, and I fell in love with it.

I studied opera, and when I left conservatory I told myself I would never sing in public again.