I've had that my whole career. People were always hedging around the question of: Why are you so dark? What happened to you?

As one gets older, this question of death, becomes more vexing and urgent.

I think each writer has to seek her most energetic prose style. She has to find a way to write so that nobody can deny it.

I see that being looked at askance as a form of elitism now, which is really scary.

My mind goes really quickly and I tend to talk really fast, as you've probably heard, I sometimes lose track of my syntax, as I'm talking that fast. The only thing I try to do, well, it's slow down, but also I do something when I'm reading that's similar to when I'm writing a section, which is to really try to imagine you on the other side, in a certain way, as an intelligent, sympathetic presence who's rooting for me to tell you a good story.

My heart goes out to him. Sort of. Because empathy depends on how you've spent your day.

The switch that I'd like to throw on is the one that says, "Look, you're a human being whose mind is every bit as active as anybody else's. Your experiences are just as real." For that matter, even if they're even if they're crazy, they're valid. They occurred in this world so they're valid topics for literature.