Whiteness is not the default in my fiction.

Emotionally, my ambition is not yet sated. Emotionally, I still feel like a kid at the adult's table, yearning for recognition. I'm not sure where this all comes from but it is how I feel.

I don't know that anyone in the United States is taught to rest.

Just write and love what you're writing. And if you're not loving what you're writing, take a look at why and fix that.

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.

I don't want the success to go away. I don't want it to seem unearned.

If I cannot rest and relax, all the work I do is for naught.