You Can't Tell People How To Feel

I Don't Think Anybody Deals Well With Tragedy Or Grief, But Maybe My Characters Are Particularly Bad At It. Which Is Why I Love Them.

The Feeling Of Being An Outsider, And The Identity Theme, Are Hardwired Into Me. If There's Anything Really Autobiographical In My Fiction, It's That Feeling. I Always Feel That Way.

Writing Short Stories Was Kind Of Like I Was Cheating The Whole Time, In Some Way. I Went Back And Forth Between Writing The Novels And Sort Of Sneaking Out To Work On Stories Occasionally. These Stories Were Written Over The Last 10 Years Or So, As I Was Taking Breaks From The Novels I've Written.

There Is Your Car And The Open Road, The Fabled Lure Of Random Adventure. You Stand At The Verge, And You Could Become Anything.

I Think At A Certain Point The Book Develops A Certain Weight, Or Pressure. You've Been Pushing The Rock Up The Hill For A Long Time And Then It Starts To Roll And Things Do Start To Come Together In The Last Two Thirds.