I keep myself locked as a box when it matters, and broken open when it doesn't matter at all.

True stories are the ones that lie open at the border, allowing a crossing, a further frontier. The final frontier is just science fiction--don't believe it. Like the universe, there is no end.

Naked is the best disguise.

I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words.

As a writer, if you're prepared to work from your own wound, you're allowing people into the most vulnerable parts of yourself.

Of course, people will laugh at you, but people laugh at a great many things so there is no need to take it personally.

I felt like a thief with a bagful of stolen glances.