The Privilege Of Being A Writer Is

I Truly Believe That Writing Is A Continuum--so The Different Genres And Forms Are Simply Stops Along The Same Continuum. Different Ideas That Need To Be Expressed Sometimes Require Different Forms For The Ideas To Float Better.

Elvis, Stop Dat! You Know It Is Taboo To Whistle At Night. You Will Attract A Spirit.

Since I Hold No Judgments Against My Characters, No Matter How Heinous They Might Seem, I Present Them As Real People With Their Own Moral Centers. We Might Feel Those Moral Centers Are Mis-calibrated, But They Are There And Are The Rudders That Propel Them. This Makes Reading My Work A Visceral Roller Coaster, 'cause The Reader Must Embark On The Journey Of The Protagonist Equipped Only With His Or Her Own Moral Center.

Fiction Is Risky For Writers Also In That The Process Of Making Certain Books, Of Shaping Certain Narratives, Leaves Scars And Marks On Your Inner Life.

The Truth Is, Everything We Know About America, Everything Americans Come To Know About Being American, Isn't From The News. I Live There. We Don't Go Home At The End Of The Day And Think, "well, I Really Know Who I Am Now Because The Wall Street Journal Says That The Stock Exchange Closed At This Many Points." What We Know About How To Be Who We Are Comes From Stories. It Comes From The Novels, The Movies, The Fashion Magazines. It Comes From Popular Culture.