I write with a fountain pen. And then revise word by word and line by line so that the first draft of a scene is usually the tenth or so draft.

I had begun what I thought might be a career in social work. I was married and deeply involved in the anti-war movement. I thought I'd go about saving the world one person at a time. I worked with kids, teenagers mostly, in neighborhood centers, on the streets, and eventually in a drop-in center.

The landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.

A lack of narrative structure, as you know, will cause anxiety.

Novels are written, not wished into existence. You have to sit your ass in the chair or nothing gets done.

We read novels because we need stories; we crave them; we can’t live without telling them and hearing them. Stories are how we make sense of our lives and of the world. When we’re distressed and go to therapy, our therapist’s job is to help us tell our story. Life doesn’t come with plots; it’s messy and chaotic; life is one damn, inexplicable thing after another. And we can’t have that. We insist on meaning. And so we tell stories so that our lives make sense.

You lose a wallet or keys or something and you notice in a second, but your life can go missing and you don't even know it.