I know perfectly well that you can't not want anything and live.

That's what perfect means. You're finished.

I was born in Australia and grew up in the foreign services. I had this kind of trans-Pacific life. I think I was always sort of oriented towards here's Australia and here's America and here's the Pacific.

I can't say that fantasy instead of the 3D world is fine or good, but I know in my own life I have certain people I've kind of fixated upon to the point of pure fantasy. Then there's such a dilemma when here they are, and they're getting ever less and less like the way the fantasy has them.

There's a lot of water in everything I've ever written. There's always oceans and pools.

Teaching writing puts you on the point of a pin in terms of what you want your own writing to be.

I suppose you retire from trying. If you retire from trying, you think, "Maybe love will just come my way if I don't want it anymore."