You exist in the minds of other people.

Sometimes you'll read something and think, "What is going on here? There must be more to this." The constraints of the news format didn't allow for more detail, or the writer didn't see it or just wasn't interested.

I've gotten used to spending more time with heavily narrative stories.

Sometimes, I'll read a news story and there will be one line about something else, and I'll find it interesting and look into it. That can often turn into an entire story on its own.

I was really struck by all these people who had committed suicide. There are videos of all of them talking about why they're so happy to shed their human existence and exit their "vehicles" and I thought, "Why is that?"

I don't think that the people in my stories are lying to themselves. Well, some of them are - everybody is at some level. But there is something about how they all inhabit a narrative of their own making.

I'm always reading. And I keep a whole list of stories, often unusual stories. There are a hundred some-odd ideas on that list.