I don't really have those kinds of intentions when I write a scene. I try to follow the internal logic of the fiction, rather than make an argument or an assertion.

I'm a very interior person. I love silence. I revel in it. I'm happy that way.

It's amazing how life conspires to set you up with what you need.

People who are harder to love pose a challenge, and the challenge makes them easier to love. You're driven to love them. People who want their love easy don't really want love.

People who experience themselves as authentic are also experiencing themselves as myth, but that's not the narrative they're going with.

People are complicated. Personally I don't go in for puritanical people.

The novel is a big space, and a lot can happen. Just think about the parts of your life. How do we account for our own contradictions? The only way to understand them is to let them exist, as truths that indicate something about character. People are built of elements that don't fit together - and the conflict of that is their essential drive.