I'm not a big Woody Allen fan, but thought 'Husbands and Wives' was great.

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

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

I think the few writers who influenced me most in writing short stories are Alice Munro and Grace Paley. They're very different, and I can't do what they do, but reading them gives me hope that I'll learn something from them.

In America you make your plans and then they happen.

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.

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