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.

Susan Rebecca White has a keen sense for how her characters talk and think. An impressive debut.

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

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

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

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