I shy away from plot structure that depends on the characters behaving in ways that are going to eventually be explained by their childhood, or by so….

A lot of politics in art is just institutional critique, which, in my opinion, is not all that political..

The desire for love is universal but that has never meant it’s worthy of respect. It’s not admirable to want love, it just is..

For me, truth cracks open in the places where things do not cohere. That's how life is..

I didn't think of the narrative as making a judgment. It didn't occur to me the reader would either, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible there wo….

Leave, with no answer. Move on to the next question..

I'm not belittling the art world. Not at all. I take it quite seriously, actually. But the logic of art is a vanguard logic that pressures art to inc….

You have time. Meaning don't use it, but pass through time in patience, waiting for something to come. Prepare for its arrival. Don't rush to meet it….

There is no real appeal for me in an image of a woman on a motorcycle..

I am occasionally enraptured by Western landscape. But I don't identify that state of mind as having to do with my own origins, having grown up in th….

When I see things in the world that leap out at me, I want to make use of them in fiction. Maybe every writer does that. It just depends on what you ….

Writing a first novel was an arduous crash course. I learned so much in the six years it took me to write it, mostly technical things pertaining to c….

I'm releasing myself from the responsibility of claiming to know when something is good and when it isn't..

You need a constant money source to live in New York City unless you're independently wealthy, which I'm not. But, from writing about art, I had met ….

I don't really have those kinds of intentions when I write a scene. I try to follow the internal logic of the fiction, rather than make an argument o….

Writing is a way of living. It doesn't quite matter that there are too many books for the number of readers in the world to read them. It's a way of ….

There is no single formula for good sentence. An invisible integument that gives the sentence wholeness and musicality, sometimes. But other times, t….

I do not enjoy the promotional side of being a writer, to be blunt about it. Even with the little amount that is expected of me, which is nothing com….

I do not consciously reclaim. I am not those "some readers" and so I think it would be impossible for me to see my work that way, as reclaiming a pre….

L.A. is a great place to write because you have a lot of space. I have a big office at home, I can leave the doors open. Flowers bloom all year. But ….

Lovers offered only what they offered and nothing more, and what they offered came with provisos: believe what you want and don't look carefully at w….