I've always preferred writing in longhand. I've always written first drafts in longhand.

What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses.

In a school community, someone who reads a book for some secretive purpose, other than discussing it, is strange. What was she reading for?

I've always been a fan of the 19th century novel, of the novel that is plotted, character-driven, and where the passage of time is almost as central to the novel as a major minor character, the passage of time and its effect on the characters in the story.

No adult in my family would ever tell me anything about who my father was. I knew from an older cousin - only four years older than I am - everything, or what little I could discover about him.

There's no reason you should write any novel quickly.

Life is serious but art is fun!