Wash the bones, bring the body, leave the heart behind.

Kelly Link's prose is conveyed in details so startling and fine that you work up a sweat just waiting for the next sentence to land. This is why we read, crave, need, can't live without short stories.

When you're in a place, the details you focus on are different than details you focus on when you're writing about it.

My family lived in Egypt from 1993 to 1996.

I've always written about animals. I'm still trying to process why that is.

At the end of the day, it's about the reader's attachment to and belief in the magical elements that make or break magical realism.

Come on, is your heart a sponge or a fist?