My older sister has entire kingdoms inside of her, and some of them are only accessible at certain seasons, in certain kinds of weather. One such melting occurs in summer rain, at midnight, during the vine-green breathing time right before sleep. You have to ask the right question, throw the right rope bridge, to get there-and then bolt across the chasm between you, before your bridge collapses.

You small mortals don't realize the power of your stories.

Sometimes, when you're writing sentence by sentence, you're not really sure what footprints you're going to fall into, or what ghosts might appear.

It took me the bulk of my twenties to write one book about a family of alligator wrestlers. Whereas somebody like Steve Martin is releasing his latest banjo symphony, having just completed another movie and acclaimed, best-selling novel.

I would love to travel around the world working for a travel company taking students abroad on cultural immersion trips.

I really try to write every day. It's hard, but it's my favorite thing to do. So, it's usually not too, too hard.

I moved to New York with the derangement of love. I was writing all these terrible stories, but I had never been happier.