Age about 30, I stopped looking up my books in bookstores. Paying attention to the marketplace isn't a healthy thing for me.
As a memoirist, I strive for veracity.
Every poem probably has sixty drafts behind it.
Having a great dad probably permitted me to pal around with guys in a way that some women don't.
I do have a really good memory. I mean, like, I can remember all the phone numbers of everybody on the street I grew up on.
I don't have a copy of my books, and the degree to which I never read them is profound. I never look.
I don't think I look like the pope's favorite Catholic - at least not under close scrutiny.
I find a great deal of comfort and care in my faith and prayer. I'd sooner do without air than prayer.
I get about five memoirs per week in my mailbox, and few of them inspire anything but a desire to pick up the channel changer.
I tell people not to write too soon about their lives. Writing about yourself too young is loaded with psychological complexities.
I think the problem with visual media like TV is that they're reductive.
I think we fall in love and become adults and become citizens in a way by writing stories about ourselves.
I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years.
I'm always astonished by the confidence my readers put in me.
I'm always terrified when I'm writing.
