You can think everything is dire, but you act as if there's possibility. I see children coming into the world as an expression of this. Sometimes, not always - it can just be somebody that wasn't on the birth control pill or didn't have access to abortion. But I usually see a wanted child as a sign of optimism, and I like that.

My friends and I sometimes laugh at each other that there is so much maintenance of a body. I paid no attention when I was younger.

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.

I'm interested in reality but I'm not interested in realism at all. I'm interested in the ways that I think people want to relate.

I think those women who get themselves to write essays, it's not an easy thing to do because as women, you're not encouraged to think; you're encouraged to feel. This is a broad, broad statement. So I think those women who go out on a limb and publish essays are highly conscious of how they are writing their opinions.

I would never want to write a character who was not thoroughly herself or himself. She's a very specific creature in my mind, and she has her thoughts, which range from skin to American history, philosophy, and the arts.