I think the close work I do as a translator pays off in my writing - I'm always searching for multiple ways to say things.

I don't pare down much. I write the beginning of a story in a notebook and it comes out very close to what it will be in the end. There is not much deliberateness about it.

I am simply not interested, at this point, in creating narrative scenes between characters.

I started writing the one-sentence stories when I was translating 'Swann's Way.' There were two reasons. I had almost no time to do my own writing, but didn't want to stop. And it was a reaction to Proust's very long sentences.

I think a lot of what goes into writing can be taught - not mixing metaphors, etc.

I can talk for a long time only when it's about something boring.

To be simple, I would say a story has to have a bit of narrative, if only "she says," and then enough of a creation of a different time and place to transport the reader.