A novel is like a long relationship and a short story is a brief one that lingers - it lingers powerfully and maybe more powerfully. I think that's true in a lot of cases, most long-term relationships compared to some of the briefer ones - the intensity of those brief ones that end, I think a short story is kind of like that. There's a certain level of intensity that I think is different.

I usually have a location and then I put the character there. I love place names. I think I'm tricking myself by being so specific - it suddenly becomes real to me. Just because I say it's Chicago, Illinois doesn't mean it's true, but place names sort of make me grounded and then I can put some people there.

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

I feel like there are too many words in the world, and I think silence is so much more powerful than the glut of words.

Lot of stories in deceit, how characters deceive other people, but most of all, I think, how they deceive themselves. We're not as tricky as we think we are.

I'm pretty tight - I rewrite, in some cases, 70 to 80 times before I show it to people.

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