I think that writers have natural canvases, and my canvas, even in short stories, often seems to be the scope of a life.

Writing by hand is a way of letting mystery into my writing. But I'm constantly trying to figure out how to do this job. It's a work in progress.

A female writer does definitely get more attention if she writes about male characters. It's true. It's considered somehow more literary, in the same way that it's more literary to write about supposedly male subjects, such as war. You're considered more seriously by the literary establishment.

At least in my case, a very simple, regular, happy life makes for better writing.

I'm always hungry for people.

As a person, I do ascribe to a lot of magical thinking myself.

Research is about following the gleam into the dark. It's also about being sensitive enough to know which fact is "the creative fact; the fertile fact; the fact that suggests and engenders," as opposed to the fact that deadens and kills a delicate new project.