It Just So Happened That For Most

I Think I'm Fascinated By The Power Of Religion In Our Culture. Like A Lot Of Secular, Liberal People, I Ignored It For A Long Time. Lately, Of Course, Just From A Political Perspective, It's Impossible To Ignore.

I Think I Was Always Writing Books That Had Very Clear Scenic Structures. I Do Tend To Write In Scenes. I Do Tend To Have A Fair Amount Of Dialogue. And I Do Tend To Use Stories That Don't Sprawl All Over The Place, That Have A Very Sharp Focus In Terms Of How They Unfold In Time.

It Just So Happened That For Most Of My Life I've Lived In The Suburbs.

The Lesson You Have To Learn As Novelist Is How To Be Collaborative, And How To Say, "i Don't Get To Dictate This."

I Was Writing Very Early, Like I Was Involved In Our High School Literary Magazine, Which Was Called 'pariah.' The Football Team Was The Bears, And The Literary Magazine Was 'pariah.' It Was Great. It Was Definitely A Real Sub-culture. But I Wrote Stories For Them.