I don't make fun of my characters. I just like to laugh and I think people are funny and the world is funny.

When I was in college, I had a friend who was an artist and her theory was that all the best art in the world is funny/sad. That was her favorite genre. Funny/sad are probably my two favorite tones.

When the kids were growing up, I think they thought the worst thing about me being a mom is that I would laugh at them. They would say something that they thought was serious and intense and I would laugh. I thought it was funny, but they don't want to be laughed at.

I've heard a lot of editors and agents say, "If the book is good, it will get published." I totally disagree with that.

I think someone who writes a ghost story probably needs to believe it in some way.

I love ghost stories, I love to read them, and I love the idea of being haunted.

Writers like Twain, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, Russell Banks, Carolyn Chute, Alice Walker, so many others that I read coming up as a writer, that helped form my ideas of what it means to be American - and an American writer. I'm always in conversation with them.