Reading is probably what leads most writers to writing.

Until you can become accountable to yourself and only yourself, you're probably not going to live a fully vital life. So much of literature is about accountability. The moral issues in most novels are about people becoming responsible for their own behaviour. One of the forces against being responsible for your own behaviour is the force of the past, in the way that the past tries to form you.

My father died in my arms. That's tumult. That's everything exploding.

Very early you come to the realization that nothing will ever take you away from yourself.

Maybe I'm a serial regional writer. First here, then there, across the map.

Any rainy summer morning, of course, has the seeds of gloomy alienation sown in. But a rainy summer morning far from home - when your personal clouds don't move but hang - can easily produce the feeling of the world as seen from the grave. This I know.

I went to college to study hospitality. I quickly got out of that and realized that what I liked to do was write.