If you risked love, it took you wherever you wanted to go. If you repressed it, you ended up unhappy.

First I laughed my way through Elinor Lipman's book of political tweets. Then I put my ear to the ground and listened to Molly Ivins guffawing from the grave. Lipman is a piquant poetic rock star!

Hardest thing: creating something out of nothing - the first draft is torturous.

I try to find something that applies not to me only, but to others, but don't try to control it too much. Essentially it is about what moves us, teaches us about ourselves.

Human behavior in the midst of hardship caught my attention very early on, and my first stories were all pictures, no words.

Only there's two sides to every story, you know. You just remember that.

I like to be surprised. The best writing is when it defies me, when it starts going a different way than I had planned.