In my short stories there's a lot of focus on people successfully and not successfully responding to some sorts of discomforts or instabilities.

There's relief in white space for the reader.

Part of being a writer is feeling that constant dissatisfaction, thinking about what else you could do, and also knowing when it's time to leave a project.

Giving the reader the space to move around and be active, and encourage their active response is important to me. That will connect the reader more to the text.

In general, teaching writing makes me a far better reader because there's so many ways to write a good sentence or a good story, and as a teacher I'm obliged to consider them all, rather than staying in the safety of my own tendencies.

I am fascinated by tiny, incremental changes, almost imperceptible shifts in how people orient themselves in the world, because those are in some ways the most hopeful.

Sometimes you just feel like you could work forever on something and never know when it's done.