The DNA of the novel - which, if I begin to write nonfiction, I will write about this - is that: the title of the novel is the whole novel. The first…

- Mary Kay Zuravleff

I realized early on in writing the book that it needed to be from a family point of view, and that nobody outside the family would weigh in. And then…

- Mary Kay Zuravleff

In fictional families - in sitcoms, in dramas - the members are sharing huge amounts of their interior lives. And that has not been my real-life expe…

- Mary Kay Zuravleff

Now, as a reader, you shouldn't feel the decisions the writer makes about this DNA, or it would be boring beyond belief. But, as a writer, you're str…

- Mary Kay Zuravleff

Dylan Landis knows how to unnerve a reader, even as she's appreciating being unnerved. Rainey Royal thrums with sex and power. A brave, exquisite boo…

- Mary Kay Zuravleff

Math-thinking, I would say, encourages flipping and substituting letters in words (in the novel, one of the boys double-majors in math and myth, for …

- Mary Kay Zuravleff

I can be really silly when I'm not actually writing silliness, and I have to rein that in. Pynchon, in my opinion, sometimes tells elaborate shaggy d…

- Mary Kay Zuravleff

In a family, you take on each other's problems and joys differently, and more intensely. The amplitude - and the undulation of the family - is differ…

- Mary Kay Zuravleff

I tried the line out on some people on the street, like, "What do you think of this: 'the art of family life is to not take it personally'?" And they…

- Mary Kay Zuravleff