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

A lot of writing is a form of seeing - putting down what you see in terms of action and landscape.

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

I have very few hobbies. In fact, I have no hobbies.

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.

Oh, God, I don't know what's more difficult, life or the English language.

No one I interact with - except maybe for family and strangers at the Russian baths and other weird places I may go to - is just friends or lovers with me: they also know something of my writing and this distorts their take on me.