My oldest sister was an actress living in NYC by the time I was ten, and desperately wanted to be the one in charge of the words.

Love is a luxury. It's something that people are allowed to indulge in when they're not simply trying to survive and keep other people alive.

Our imaginations are strong as children. Sometimes they get shoved aside, these imaginations. They get dusty and mildewed with age. The imagination is a muscle that has to be put to use or it shrivels.

Literature has done great work for feminism - writing and reading are a practice of empathy - and great literature will continue to do so.

Is it wrong to kill something that wants to kill you?

The intricacy of plotting a thriller is akin to writing formal poetry.

First, you hand over some basics-overwhelming joy, existential angst, a giving-in to desire, etc. And then you promise to withstand talking idly about the weather, to encourage cliché, to uphold the virtues of average. You hand over the need to be understood and, in return, you get a bar of Normal soap. And you can wash in it and be daily reborn to a safe world of modest, enduring love or, at least, mild, well-mannered bonding.