One good thing the teaching has given me is the ability to read and revise my own work.

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.

I think narrators expect a high level of intimacy with their readers, and vice versa.

I believe that we can access stories, and voices from those around us, more easily often than from our own imperfect memories.

I had written about a small hamlet upstate, and had been called into a meeting about my story, which, as it turned out, had upset a lot of people.

I tend to listen to my friends and family empathetically, and I try to help work through their problems from the inside. I try to adopt their thinking.

I think one's person's unlikeable is another's lovable.