My tunnel vision allows me to have a longer work day than most writers. I'm thankful for that.

Memoirs need confusion. It's the thing every human has in common. We are magnificently confused.

Shamefulness is always a huge part of my characterizations. I like protagonists that reveal, either through "honesty" in their various thought processes or via their actions, perhaps telling us things they're not so keen on disclosing through their interactions with the outside world. Probably both during the duration of a novel.

Memoir is a unique opportunity to revisit yourself. I don't mean by memory. I mean in the revision process. You don't just write a chapter and that's it. You must constantly return to it. You must dote on it. And even if it's saying something ugly about who you are, you have to find the poetry in it. You have to find the poetry in yourself.

I'm a very tactile learner, so I need analog index cards, moving them all about, trying out various sequences for the book's architecture.

I always feel that as the author, once I know what a character is ashamed of, then I can go about making her truthful on the page.

I'm a semi-failed writer, but I'm a capital-F Failed musician.