I think political situations usually work their way into my writing, but not necessarily in an explicit way. The environment is so chaotic now. There is someone so entirely unreliable in charge, and reliable only in the fact that Thing - I don't say his name - is a pathological narcissist. He's going to do whatever he can to defend himself and whatever will make him look good. That's what matters to him.

As a reader myself, which precedes my being a writer, of course, I read in order to enter another world.

Writing and rewriting are the same thing to me. I don't believe what Allen Ginsberg said that "first thought, then - " I just don't believe that.

Any writer knows that what's left out is as essential, if not more so, than what's there. Unlearning works that way.

I'm very interested in animal behavior, and the relationship of human beings to other animal behavior.

I'm interested in reality but I'm not interested in realism at all.

Wanting to know all kinds of things is perfect for novelists, because novelists are generalists. We're not specialists in anything, except, hopefully, writing.