People, no matter the economic class, find ways to feed their narcissism.

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.

People, no matter the economic class, find ways to feed their narcissism.

The Dutch and the English, former competitors for world dominance, taught me the wisdom of waiting as well as withholding.

I'd studied English literature and American history, but the English literature, which I thought was going to be helpful to me in an immediate way, was the opposite. So I had to un-think a lot of things and move out of my own head, and I learned a lot. It was like graduate school, but an un-graduate school or an un-school.

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.

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.