Sometimes I'm writing for magazines on assignment, but the university has to be patient with me. I mean, during the ten-week periods that I have a class, I'm there every Thursday night or whatever it is, but sometimes that's all I'm there, because I'm somewhere else the rest of the time.

Praise Roxane Gay for her big-hearted self-examining intelligence, for her inclusive and forgiving stance, for her courage and determination . . . for saying out loud the things we were thinking, for guiding us back to ourselves and returning to us what was ours all along.

It would have been so perfectly ironic if I had been killed by the dog, because I was petting a dog who was not used to being pet, because I think I'm some kind of dog whisperer, and I think I can make any dog love me.

When I was a little kid, I used to walk miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles of railroad tracks.

Traveling is my priority, because it drives the writing, so I teach around the travel, and sometimes the travel is the teaching.

I write well on the road. I have the energy, I have the motivation to write. I'm happy when I'm on the road.

I'm not very interested in telling the facts. I have a lot of investment in telling the truth.