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

There are so many people who write really interesting work and try super hard and still don't get published.

I laugh when I'm writing. I feel like all my work is funny to me.

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.

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.

You can hurt people's feelings if you laugh.