In general, I think every novel is a political novel, in that every novel is an argument about how the world works, who has power, who has a voice, w….

I've heard a lot of editors and agents say, "If the book is good, it will get published." I totally disagree with that..

I love ghost stories, I love to read them, and I love the idea of being haunted..

My natural tendency is to fall in love with language and character and setting, and kind of forget about pacing. Narrative tension doesn't come natur….

Writers like Twain, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, Russell Banks, Carolyn Chute, Alice Walker, so many others that I re….

There are so many people who write really interesting work and try super hard and still don't get published..

When the kids were growing up, I think they thought the worst thing about me being a mom is that I would laugh at them. They would say something that….

I think someone who writes a ghost story probably needs to believe it in some way..

Don't you think almost anything can be funny? Almost anything..

It is radical for a woman to choose to survive and to choose to eat anything..

I know books that are really good and writers that are really good and they have become oppressed and ground down from the rejection and they stop. E….

The "we" voice is rare, and the communal impulse of the "we" is interesting to me..

When I was in college, I had a friend who was an artist and her theory was that all the best art in the world is funny/sad. That was her favorite gen….

It's really difficult to know what is the best way forward when you're not getting a lot of support - and probably most writers aren't getting enough….

I'm really interested in the United States, what it means to be American - maybe because my father's an immigrant and my grandparents were immigrants….

I laugh when I'm writing. I feel like all my work is funny to me..

Nice girls are not supposed to be hungry. They are not supposed to feed themselves or care about their own food. They're definitely not supposed to t….

I don't make fun of my characters. I just like to laugh and I think people are funny and the world is funny..

No one really wants to be laughed at..

I've always been a teaser, even as a kid..

You can hurt people's feelings if you laugh..