I don't ever rest. It's a problem and hopefully something I will get a better handle on in the coming years.

I love writing fiction because I can totally lose myself and I get to make up the rules of the world that I'm writing.

We don't all have to believe in the same feminism. Feminism can be pluralistic so long as we respect the different feminisms we carry with us, so long as we give enough of a damn to try to minimize the fractures among us. Feminism will better succeed with collective effort, but feminist success can also rise out of personal conduct.

What is it like to be connected to someone you can never get away from, for better or worse? I love trying to answer that question.

I write for myself, first and foremost and I also write for people, mostly women, who just want to be seen and heard and all too often aren't.

Writing has always allowed me to escape. I was a very lonely child. Because I was very socially awkward, I would always have trouble making friends. And so reading and writing allowed me to have friends and to have an active imaginary life that really sort of kept me sane.

That the question of likability even exists in literary conversations is odd. It implies that we are engaging in a courtship. When characters are unlikable, they don’t meet our mutable, varying standards. Certainly we can find kinship in fiction, but literary merit shouldn’t be dictated by whether we want to be friends or lovers with those about whom we read.