When I teach, I try to assign writers from whom I can learn.

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 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.

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

My characters tend, if wounded, to be emotionally resourceful. Often they're in that way station between when loss happens and when it can be fully comprehended. In the meantime they're fighting to get something back, and occasionally they prevail in surprising ways.

I think the voice can carry a story.