Even when I was living below the poverty line as a novelist, I was still living better than 99.5% of the human population of the world. But in my little, soft realm of trying to amuse a few dozen middle-class people with my books and articles, I did struggle to survive in my own way.

People don't expect too much from literature. They just want to know they're not alone with being confused.

As a child, I wanted to be an athlete, a professional tennis player or something like that.

The work changes the way your face changes and ages - it just does. Also, I have very little connection to anything I've written. I move on. We all move on

For me, books have always been a way to feel less alone while being alone. Perhaps if I was depressed and isolated, just communicating with these authors through their sentences helped me.

It's hard for me to think of writing a novel, because it takes so long.

It's hard to leave New York: this is where my friends are, my parents are. It is so vital. The whole world seems to look to New York.