Many writers secretly long to be performers. You always get the 'if you weren't a writer' question. I would be a back-up singer, to stand in the back and go like 'do, do, do.

I'm not in charge of my life.

I'm going to continue writing. I'll always be a storyteller. But I'm also taking time to enjoy my life.

Women are far and away the bigger consumers of fiction than men, but men are still far and away the more reviewed, the more critically esteemed, the more respected. That can get frustrating.

My book sales make 'real writers' possible.

If there had been an exercise I'd liked, would I have gotten this big in the first place?

Maybe it stems from my newspaper-reporting days, but I took notes the whole time - getting the call, how I felt. As soon as I put pen to paper, it became a story [Hunger Heart], not something happening to me but something I was recording.