Our house is made of glass... and our lives are made of glass; and there is nothing we can do to protect ourselves.

'A Fair Maiden' existed in notes and sketches for perhaps a year. When I traveled, I would take along with me my folder of notes - 'ideas for stories.' Eventually, I began to write it and wrote it fairly swiftly - in perhaps two months of fairly intense writing and rewriting. Most of my time writing is really re-writing.

Love is an indescribable sensation - perhaps a conviction, a sense of certitude.

I am inclined to think that as I grow older I will come to be infatuated with the art of revision, and there may come a time when I will dread giving up a novel at all.

Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.

Where there must be a choice, a girl will choose Daddy. Even if you are Mommy, you concede that this must be so: you remember when you were a girl, too.

Your punishment if you're a woman. Not loved enough.