I'll write about California someday, I imagine, but I don't know when.

I'm suspicious of epiphanies, because they so rarely last.

I'm always relearning things I thought I'd learned for good a while back.

When you teach, it's sometimes necessary to consciously not write for a month or two - and then pick a time in the future to sink back in. It makes you less frustrated and more in control. I do best when I give myself breaks and come back hungry.

I think it's probably better to make a region your own, and then maybe you can go somewhere else, but a lot of great writers have stuck to one region.

I think the second, or outsider's, perspective can come as you layer a story. It's as though you've grabbed a secondary character and asked them, "What do you make of this guy?" and the hope is that the answer surprises you as the writer.

Of course I'd sometimes have characters from downstate living upstate, but it took a while for me to start writing about where I grew up.