I'm a professional. So before I published any novels, I'd always been writing stories.

He thought it might be the most intimate thing possible, to fall asleep next to someone in the afternoon.

What business does memory have with time?

Because I'm a novelist, I think in terms of structure. The way I keep going is through structure. It's what inspires me and pushes me through.

Sometimes what we want to do and what we must do are not the same. Pasquo, the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.

I think the path to becoming a writer has become more through the novel. It's easier to get a novel published than a book of stories, obviously, especially through big publishers.

The first seven years that I wrote fiction, I sent out stories and a novel and made a total of $25.