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.

My first book came out again - the re-issue from 2001. I was rereading it to make sure that I didn't miss any mistakes, and I didn't know who had written some of these stories. I really didn't. I am a different person now. It's weird. I think if stories are good, they have to have a life of their own that's independent of the writer. I like to think of my characters out there in other peoples' heads. That's a nice thing to think about.

I agonize over things like this - the order of things, section titles, all this architectural sort of stuff. Takes me years to figure out.

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

If a novel or a story works, you don't stop thinking about it; it doesn't truly end.

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.

I think what I'm after, a lot of the time, is just honesty. What accounts for the fact that the stories we tell ourselves - the story we carry around and think of most often - are the dark ones? Maybe we have to wander around in the darkness to understand it?