Writing, for me, is always a dance between the critical part of my brain and the subconscious.

Things, very strange things, happen in folktales and there is never much attention given to the whys and wherefores.

We grow, we mature, some of us give birth, we age, we die.

I'm interested in endurance. People persist in the face of the most excruciating hardships.

The language of the novel differs from the just-the-facts language of the old tales. It's robust and earthy, sometimes even baroque.

I never know where I'm headed when I'm working on a book.

Why did people try to shush trouble away as if it were an unruly child?