Basically if you burst into my office the walls themselves will flutter as if alive - maybe that's the reason for all the wings in 'Pure.

I was born in the era of the novel. I've written many, as well as collections of poetry, and essays for mouthing off. I've written to inches, word-counts, page-counts, even the sonnet and the screenplay (which I call a plot poem). I write narrative. That's it. I just want to tell it.

I try not to divide plot and character. I get to know a character by what they want and fear and how those internal forces play out in their lives.

Sometimes you meet someone and you know that your life will be different from then on.

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

What does it mean to be Catholic and not a Catholic? I feel adrift, homeless. My Catholic imagination allows me to see the soul as a lit breath, seeking the divine. It persists.

As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently - as if whispering it into one ear - and to know the characters intimately.