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

I grew up in northern New Jersey - the banlieue of New York - and I now live in Brooklyn. I am separated from my parents by about 50 miles, but really there is almost no distance between us. I speak to them nearly every day.

Something has happened where you almost never grow up in America. Maybe it's the greater wealth.

I don't like rides. I take everything in life quite literally, and so I genuinely feel terrified on rides and liable to vomit at any moment, and I hate to vomit even more than I fear rides. So, all this to say, I don't have a favorite ride. I don't go on rides. Well, that's not true. A few years ago I had a beautiful, romantic moment on the Ferris wheel at Coney Island, known as the Wonder Wheel, and so I guess that's my favorite ride, though even that, to be frank, terrified me.

Mostly I have to try to censor myself so as not to write things that will hurt other people, or that will go too far.

I've really never written about my relationships, or things like that. I wouldn't want to divulge things that were too private.

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