I want that which is hilarious and that which is heartbreaking to occupy the same territory in the book because I think they very often occupy the same territory in life, much as we try to separate them.

I get and read an enormous number of first novels.

... Baggott enjoys living on the knife edge between hilarity and heartbreak and that makes her a writer after my own heart.

Some authors have a very hard time understanding that in order to be faithful to the spirit of the book, it's almost always impossible to remain faithful to the text. You have to make changes.

America has always been a nation of small places, and as we lose them, we're losing part of ourselves.

It's no secret that in my books I'm trying to make the comic and the serious rub up against each other just as closely and uncomfortably as I can.

There are a great many sins in this world, none of them original.