You can sometimes find something good on the other side of doing something very, very painful.

Like a lot of writers, I just got sick to death of conventional fiction. I absolutely couldn't stand the illusion of reality and plot. I just couldn't stomach it.

I grew up flying over oceans and moving and sailing.

Sometimes there isn't a way to hug and make everything better.

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 think sometimes to still be angry is appropriate, but you want to be able to live with it.

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