If being a spokesman for a generation is a fleeting occupation, being a symbol of an era is downright dangerous for anyone who has the bad luck to outlive it.

You know, Im always surprised when I read profiles, and they make me sound so jaded. I am so not jaded.

Most novelists I know went through a period of intense self-examination and self-loathing after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. I certainly did.

I realized that I might not ever make it as a writer, that it might be because I wasn't good enough, or that it might be because the odds were just too long.

Your presence here is is only a matter of conducting an experiment in limits, reminding yourself of what you aren’t.

A creative writing program is only as good as its teachers, and I was fortunate in having two great writers as mentors.

Delia's arms were inscribed with a grid of self- inflicted wounds, an intricate text of self-loathing