I am a bad feminist and a good woman. I am trying to become better in how I think and say and do - without abandoning what makes me human.

It's gut instinct that helps me determine how to write a story. I love the surreal because I am faced with the challenge of making the unbelievable believable. That challenge is thrilling.

I thought a lot about how so many memoirs about fatness focus on weight loss; they don't focus on living with weight in a world that is rather inhospitable to it. So I knew that was the idea that was going to be most interesting and most challenging, and I like to be challenged as a writer.

It is deeply unfair to task writers of color with unique responsibilities that we don't assign to all writers.

Violence is a common part of far too many women's lives.

People do terrible things all the time, but we don’t regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things.

The actual act of writing brings me such pleasure - to tell stories, to engage in cultural criticism, to reflect, to question, all of it is invigorating.