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.

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

The dead are celebrated. The dead are loved. They give something to the living. Once you put something into the ground, Doctor, you always know where to find it.

A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want to or not. It calls you back.

The best fiction stays with you and changes you.

You never know what's going to happen in your life, and you never know what's going to happen in someone else's life either.

In the mess of moving from place to place, I skipped two grades in the space of one year.