A book coming out into the world can be a harsh, harsh time. And your feelings are on the line. Everything that publication is about is really not what your writing is about. Your writing is coming out of something else, and publication and being in the public are something else. And those of us who have published, in whatever way we're published, are very fortunate.

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

I think about material that could work in the novel or story as I'm writing. I see if I can get there through what's happening with the character. But it's by inclination. It's not "At this moment this will happen." Usually with my characters you can't tell what has induced them to do anything. That's because, from my understanding of reality - which is always subjective - everything is overdetermined.

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

I think it's true that unless human beings experience something, they simply don't understand what people are going through.

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

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.