I think attempting to make art is a utopian process in itself, definitely. Nothing I do is ever equal to the ideas in my head. You do the best you can, you do it with patience and love, and then you give up. The moment you give up is when you know the book is done.

You had to pick up a landline to make sure your best friend wore a matching outfit to school. I do remember people talking more. Nostalgia is dangerous, though.

As soon as you publish a book and the reader reads it, they're making an extension of your brain with their brain.

As with most of my work, I started from the abstract, from research, building an intellectual model that slowly became internalized when the characters came alive. It's fascinating what happens to the model you've so assiduously assembled when characters are allowed to run rampant: things you thought essential are broken and other things are vastly improved.

Sometimes you have to let time carry you past your troubles.

My childhood was as conventional as you could get.

I'm a writer, not an actor. I want to write rather than perform. I'm looking forward to disappearing for a while.