I had to learn quick, because I was performing in Cinco de Mayo festivals with babies crying and people lifting their beers, and you know the feather dancers would come, and they'd say, "What are you, a poet? You're next".

Everything that I write comes when it wants to, out of its own need and it dictates its form. I don't say, "I am going to write a novel."

If you're poor, potato chips are the food of life for you. It's the caviar.

I would drive on streets that were one-way and think, "Why are they all honking at me?"

I didn't marry. I didn't have children. I followed the food supply for jobs. I kept writing at night. And that kept me moving. It kept my life disruptive. It broke up many relationships. Was it worth it? Yes.

I think of reading as like a medicine cabinet.

You have to remember that writing itself is so solitary. You start writing because you're lonely.