A Sentence Is Born Into This World

For Me, A Novel Is Always The Result Of My Attempt To Impose Myself On Raw Circumstances. It Is A Concrete Form Of Lived Experience.

I'm A Novelist, Not A Social Scientist Or A Commentator.

There Is Always Shame In The Creation Of An Expressive Work, Whether It's A Book Or A Clay Pot. Every Artist Worries About How They Will Be Seen By Others Through Their Work. When You Create, You Aspire To Do Justice To Yourself, To Remake Yourself, And There Is Always The Fear That You Will Expose The Very Thing That You Hoped To Transform.

I Felt That I Could Swim For Miles, Out Into The Ocean: A Desire For Freedom, An Impulse To Move, Tugged At Me As Though It Were A Thread Fastened To My Chest. It Was An Impulse I Knew Well, And I Had Learned That It Was Not The Summons From A Larger World I Used To Believe It To Be. It Was Simply A Desire To Escape From What I Had.

As It Stands, Motherhood Is A Sort Of Wilderness Through Which Each Woman Hacks Her Way, Part Martyr, Part Pioneer; A Turn Of Events From Which Some Women Derive Feelings Of Heroism, While Others Experience A Sense Of Exile From The World They Knew.