I write by hand in my notebooks and number the drafts, so I know how crazy I can get with this. Some writers, like my teacher Marilynne Robinson, she only writes one draft. I've thought about this a lot; I think it's because she writes it 80 times in her head before it comes out.

Everybody, doesn't matter who you are, escapes time. And for me, nothing is stranger than the thought that kids are just kids. Nobody is just anything. Whether you are eight or eighty, you've got your own unique take on how weird this world is.

I try not to read my own books just because I would rather read somebody else.

I always say writing fiction isn't something you teach. It's something you do, and only experimentation - i.e. doing it, either badly or good sometimes - can help anybody get any better or worse at it.

What you can do with a short story that you can't do with a novel is punch someone in the gut, in the best of ways.

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

I sometimes wonder if our memories are a myth. We think we remember, but we are remembering the story and not the actual event?