The lessons learned in journalism also apply. Writing for NPR has taught me to cut a piece in half and then in half again - without losing the essence. Apply that to the swollen prose of a bulky novel and you might reveal a beautiful work.

I feel too much. It's like being drummed to death from within. You know?

I am deeply Catholic and always will be, but I'm no longer a member of the church. I left in 2003 because of the sex abuse scandal.

While I was in college becoming a good Catholic I was also becoming a writer - one haunted by Catholicism.

I don't have a favorite. I need different genres at different times.

So far, I should be calm and more specifically not like that...Anything else? Would you like to do surgery on my personality? How about open-heart surgery? I´ve got some tools

I write across genres so I see them, more often, as complementary instead of separated by boundaries.