My job is to have empathy and curiosity for things that I've never done. Also, I'm a person whom people talk to.

I think that's the thing that memoir can do more than anything it does; it testifies and bears witness to the existence of people whose lives, pleasures and virtues would never have been testified to without my having done it. That makes me really glad.

Happiness for me is getting to write about the most important things I know.

I'm trying to cause people to be interested in the particulars of their lives because I think that's one thing literature can do for us. It can say to us: pay attention. Pay closer attention. Pay stricter attention to what you say to your son.

The thing about being a writer is that you never have to ask, 'Am I doing something that's worthwhile?' Because even if you fail at it, you know that it's worth doing.

My job is to have empathy and curiosity for things that I've never done. Also, I'm a person whom people talk to.

You can't always go to the well and have things be funny.