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.

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.

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

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

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

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.