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 think the voice can carry a story.

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

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.

Being a reporter took me out of myself and that shaped me as a writer.

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

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.