Generally, women can't do this, but men retain the ancient ability to leave a family and a past. They just unhook themselves, like removing a fake beard, and skulk discreetly back into society, changed men. Unrecognizable.

There's a perception that novels can't usually allow for your kind of absolute attention to detail.

If you're going to write a good book, you have to make mistakes and you have to not be so cautious all the time.

[George Saunders] is very precise about what he is doing. There isn't a thing left to chance.

People don't settle for people. They resolve to be with them. It takes faith. You draw a circle in the sand and agree to stand in it and believe in it.

I don't ask myself what did I live for, said Carlene strongly. That is a man's question. I ask whom did I live for.

I wouldn't write about people who are living and who are close to me, because I think it's a very violent thing to do to another person. And anytime I have done it, even in the disguise of fiction, the results have been horrific.