Alice Munro is a particular kind of short story writer in that she writes long, character-driven short stories.

Most good fiction also has a character the writer seems to know more deeply than anyone can actually be known in life, but a few unusual writers can make something great without that.

I can't listen to music when I'm writing. I like music best in a car or on the train.

I've always been a little bit more of a novel reader than a short story reader. I think the first books that made me want to be a writer were novels.

It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.

I like it when someone gives me a new book of poetry by a poet I haven't read.

Research for fiction is a funny thing: you go looking for one piece of information, and find something altogether different.