My grandfather and I were very close.

For me it was a lot harder to come to terms with the death of my grandfather than it was to come to terms with what's happened to the former Yugoslavia.

death should be celebrated...when you put something in the ground you always know where it is

In terms of people that I know, my grandmother and my mother are huge influences on my writing life because they are both massively supportive and always have been of my career.

The best fiction stays with you and changes you.

Suddenness," he says. " You do not prepare, you do not explain, you do not apologize. Suddenly, you go. And with you, you take all contemplation, all consideration of your own departure. All the suffering that would have come from knowing comes after you are gone, and you are not a part of it.

My road to publishing actually came through a colleague who connected me to my agent, and the faculty at Cornell was very supportive.