I feel like if writers used writing as therapy we'd have a ton of happy writers.

Publishing in a way doesn't have a lot to do with writing, and writing doesn't have a lot to do with publishing.

I'm a morning person: if I don't get up, put the coffee on and get to my desk by 8, the day has already lost a lot of its promise.

I feel sometimes like a book tour is a slow series of humiliations and that if you're strong you'll come out of it OK.

The world is a dysfunctional place in so many ways. It is unstable. So even though that chaos can be reflected in our own homes, I suppose we have to fight that by creating our own versions of safety, which can also turn into ignoring the state of the world.

History releases me from my own experience and jogs my fictional imagination.

My father is an economist who specialized in foreign food policy, and my mother worked for AID, a branch of the State Department, so food in regards to world affairs was talked about a lot.