The story sometimes writes you into a corner.

Honestly, the choice is: I can be a cheerful person, more awake to correction, more of a force for good ... when I'm writing. Or I can be the opposite of all those things, when I'm not writing.

There's a really nice moment in the life of a piece of writing where the writer starts to get a feeling of it outgrowing him - or he starts to see it having a life of its own that doesn't have anything to do with his ego or his desire to 'be a good writer'.

I was a straight arrow, a control freak. I didn't do drugs or drink, and this was the '70s. I didn't like the loss of control. Which isn't exactly right, because I didn't know what happened when you did drugs.

I've always wanted to write energetic, atypical sentences, i.e., sentences that were not normal or bland.

The word 'funny' is a bit like the word 'love' - we don't have enough words to describe the many varieties.

Fiction is open to whoever comes in the door, as long as you come in energetically.