But there it is: Everyone is alone, for life, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

I wrote before I could write. I got my hands on a journal, maybe a hand-me-down; I had three older siblings. My first entries are in the handwriting of the sister closets in age (5 years my senior). She must have gotten tired of my dictations because she gave up and then my blocky scrawl shows up. I wrote plays as a kid mostly.

But there it is: Everyone is alone, for life, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

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.

Try to think of writing as a gift - more complexly put: it is the curse and the cure.

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.

I don't know when I'm writing dark. I don't know when I'm writing funny or even heartbreaking. I'm always just trying to write it true.