Actually, you’re not famous at all. Maybe you’ll get some traction after you’re dead?

I think anything we do - eating, walking down the street, online shopping - gives you another perspective on writing stories.

I beat a story to within an inch of its life - that's when I know its done. Not before, not after.

A collection, for me, is a book of very diverse stories that somehow speak to each other, across wide geography, across time, years, decades.

But this is exactly why I read--and don't belong to a book group--because reading is the most individual thing there is. Why collectivize it? Didn't we have enough bad English teachers in school? Crowd sourcing and literature shouldn't mix.

We don't want emotion handed to us - that's not emotion. You have to build and come from the reader's soul.

I revise and revise and revise. I'm not even sure "revise" is the right word. I work a story almost to death before it's done.