I barely can go shopping for clothes. I find it difficult to walk into stores. The whole thing bores me so much.

I project myself so deeply into the characters in novels that I'm not thinking about my own life.

No book includes the entire world. It's limited. And so it doesn't seem like an aesthetic compromise to have to do that. There's so much other material to write about.

I am very scared at the beginning of each book, because I've never written it before. I feel I have to teach myself how to do it.

I never would have thought of that word, "hospitality." I settle into the rhythm of my steps.

History is present in all my novels. And whether I am directly talking about the sociological moment or just immersing my character in the environment, I am very aware of it.

Writing begins in the body, it is the music of the body, and even if the words have meaning, can sometimes have meaning, the music of the words is where the meanings begin....Writing as a lesser form of dance.