Every book takes you to the terror, that terrible place of possible failure.

I was interested in cross-pollinating the two. I thought there was something lovely in the little vignette forms. I wanted to explore that.

Some people need flowers, some people need dandelions. It's medicine, it's what you need at that time in your life.

You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are.

I remember I was very taken with a book called DreamTigers by [Jorge Luis] Borges. He was at the University of Texas, Austin, and they collected some of his writings and put them in a little collection. It's called DreamTigers in English, but it doesn't exist in Spanish. It's a little sampler. But that collection in English is what struck me, because in there he has his poems, and I was a poet as well as a fiction writer.

Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in

I know there are a lot of women who are afraid of driving on highways.