It is radical for a woman to choose to survive and to choose to eat anything.

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.

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

In general, I think every novel is a political novel, in that every novel is an argument about how the world works, who has power, who has a voice, what we should care about. But political novels can be boringly polemical if they end up being too black and white, too one dimensional, like war is bad, killing people is wrong.

My natural tendency is to fall in love with language and character and setting, and kind of forget about pacing. Narrative tension doesn't come naturally to me, and if it does feel fast-paced that makes me incredibly happy.

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

It is radical for a woman to choose to survive and to choose to eat anything.