I didn't start writing so that I could more deeply know myself. I was bored of myself, my life, my childhood, my hometown. I started writing as a way to know others, to get away from myself.

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

Writing is my obsession, my passion. My relationship with it is one of the most complex and agonizing and richly vexing that I have in my life.

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.

Writers aren't born properly labeled so it is hard to know one when one appears.

Love is selfless, it is a weakness, a giving in, a constant falling.

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