They were snobs or idiots or both...yet she was inexplicably crushed by their coldness.

I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.

Her only thought was of getting away, as if she were carrying a live grenade from inside the house, so that when it exploded, it would destroy just herself.

Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?” Scotty shook his head. “The goon won.

The bottom line is that I like my first drafts to be blind, unconscious, messy efforts; that's what gets me the best material.

I hope to keep writing journalism as long as I write fiction; it's afforded me such amazing adventures and opportunities. It does take a lot of time, so it's hard to do both at once, but I try to do a big journalism piece every couple of years, and I'll hopefully continue with that.

I guess in my own life, privacy, anonymity, and the mystery of being lost are important. I also feel that people are mysterious and complex no matter what they do, and no matter how hard they try to reveal their own mystery.