I think that if you're writing about the human condition, my God, you've got to start at base: point zero, point one, is the body.

Here at last is her smile: burn it into your memory; you won't see it often.

You were at the age where you could fall in love with a girl over an expression, over a gesture

I was really drawn to thinking about the women in my life. Thinking about my mother, who's a very powerful force on me. And I have these two very strong sisters who took up a lot of imaginary space in my life.

If you really want a prize, or if you really want applause, you should try to write as many books as humanly possible.

In my view, a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

I was surrounded by a lot of male writers of color who have this incredibly bizarre relationship to masculinity. It's like we were all mega-nerds but you would never know that if you listened to the way they talk about themselves.