I was pretty dorky, but there are tiers of dorkdom and I always had friends, though they were equally dorky. I was one of those kids who contracted cooties in the second grade and then had cooties, because there wasn't a vaccine for it. When I was around people, though, I generally wanted to make them laugh. I told a lot of stories.

As most New Yorkers have done, I have given serious and generous thought to the state of my apartment should I get killed during the day.

I now know my right from my left and my up from my down. Unluckily, my terrible sense of direction remains. For me, to live in New York City is to never be able to meet someone on the northeast corner. It is to never ever make a smooth entrance, always to get caught looking lost on the street.

Yes. I am writing full-time. Which is strange. It feels like not having a job.

I think it's hard to have a full-time job and write fiction, but for essays, you need to be in the world.

You know what they say: 'Why sit at a table that doesn't have key lime pie on it if you don't have to?'

I love giving people advice on what to do with their books, but I don't really know how a Kindle Single gets covered.