I wish I had the luxury of time to read and write like grad students do. That sounds pretty awesome. When I was writing my first book one of my friends was going to grad school at the same time and I heard a lot of stories about drinking, too. I feel like everyone was having affairs.

The very best parts of me go into my writing, it is the best version of myself, and I don't think it's hubristic to believe that that's worth something, worth someone else's time. It's the most I have to offer the world.

I don't pretend for a second that I'm that great of a person on a day-to-day basis. I'm a deeply flawed human.

You can quit smoking, and never have to have a cigarette again to survive. But with food, it is a daily challenge.

I had always loved life on the road. It was just something that appealed to me very deeply.

Writers have a job to do. Editors do, too. You have to stand ground and cede ground on a case by case basis. When an editor tells me something isn't working and I still believe in it, I tend to think it just isn't working hard enough.

In 1998, I started a blog, something I could control very easily and update at my own whim.