I learned I could be miserable anywhere in the world. I learned I really was an American.

I think the major device for me is that narrator's voice. I'm always trying to find a different kind of form to tell whatever story it is, and I wish that weren't so, because it drives me crazy.

Being in Europe had helped me unlearn some of what I'd been taught or unconsciously believed.

People are less focused on the story, and more on how the story is told.

The literary world is more time-traveling than the art world, and novelty is much more important in art than it is in writing.

Kafka wrote the great line: "my education has damaged me in ways I do not even know." And that's always been a signature motto for me.

I'm bothered, as a reader, when I feel the writer is filling in too much. Again, whether it's nonfiction or fiction, I think writers are providing a kind of template or platform for thinking and imagining.