Often in gothic novels there's a large house, an estate, and it's symbolic of that culture. Usually it's sort of moldering or rotted or something, and sometimes it's a whole community.

I think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people's lives when they go in one direction, not another.

Very few writers of distinction in fact were outstanding as undergraduates.

For what are the words with which to summarize a lifetime, so much crowded confused happiness terminated by such stark slow-motion pain?

I don't think that any 'ism' is higher than literature or art. So I'm a formalist. I greatly honor and respect the form of a work.

See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there's a reason. There has to be

The cleaning is something I use as a reward if I get some work done. I go into a very happy state of mind when I'm vacuuming.