I keep one simple rule that I only move in one direction - I write the book straight through from beginning to end. By following time's arrow I keep myself sane.

You don’t have the slightest idea of what it means to write a scene and a character in the English language, with images and words chock full of received meaning.

Some people have things written all over their faces; the big guy had a couple of words misspelled in crayon on his.

Yet I'm making a book and I'm going to care immensely about what words get bound in the pages, and I want the object to look good. I won't believe in it and it won't be real to me until there's a finished book I can hold.

I don't have a lot of paper in my immediate work environment, except when I'm doing things like checking the godforsaken proofs.

I don't paint anymore. I haven't since I abandoned it at 19, in order to begin writing seriously.

I’ve always been uninterested in boundaries or quarantines between tastes and types, between mediums and genres.