Innocence as we understand it in our culture is very theatrical. The flip side is, if youre charming enough, you can get away with anything.

The most shocking act, closely examined, is just a louder version of some habitual gesture.

I stopped writing short fiction early on - I was never really good at it, and I never liked the results. So I stopped trying to fit the material I was working with into these tidy little short fiction packages.

Graduate school is a really supportive environment, but in a way, it was only when that support vanished that I flourished.

The complexity of the world is so overwhelming and so present to everyone.

Ive at times in my past been so unhappy, and thought, like, I would give anything for this not to be happening. And, you know, as people say, time passes, and then you think, Im kind of glad that happened to me.

Innocence as we understand it in our culture is very theatrical. The flip side is, if youre charming enough, you can get away with anything.