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

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've always been a teaser, even as a kid.

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

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.

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

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