We're all living in some state of illusion, even if modestly.
I still believe on some level that at the end, somebody will say, 'You get an A-minus for your life.' And it's not true. It's not true.
If you know what you're doing, it's not interesting. It has to be a challenge; it has to seem impossible and urgent to do it. And then you do it.
Women's anger is very scary to people, and to no one more than to other women, who think, 'My goodness, if I let the lid off, where would we be?'
I'd wish for my work to be remembered rather than myself.
In a globalised world, so many of us move around so much. You lose things, but you also gain things - or hope to gain them.
It's still unacceptable for women to have negative emotions, especially anger, and I was trying to write against that.
If you're reading to find friends, you're in deep trouble.
You lose something in not being rooted, but you gain something by seeing the world differently. It's both a loss and a gift.
When I finish a book, I always fear that I'll never write again. It takes a lot of time. You always think if you could just do something else - but nothing else makes me as happy.
I digress a lot - it's how I experience the world. I would like to write in a way that will convey that to the reader, but also I need clarity.
You can't make a character do something they wouldn't do.
Because we moved so much, I was always having to adapt and work out the lay of the land. So I felt envious of those who did not have to try.
Place and displacement have always been central for me. A type of insecurity goes with that: you are always following the cues, like learning the dance steps when the dance is already under way.
Rushing around can be a pointless diversion from actually living your life.
I was someone who believed that every day should be different from the last.
Years ago, I worked in a newspaper office, and there were men that would have fits of temper, and it was just accepted that that's who they were, and everyone would laugh about it, but if a woman got upset or angry, something wasn't right: she was 'hysterical' or 'a little unhinged.' It didn't have the same sort of connotation at all.
As a reader, I have always enjoyed 'ranty' books, but they are all written by men.
I have always been interested in that relationship between what happens in our head and what happens in the world.
The Strauss allowed me to be a writer. Without it, 'The Emperor's Children' would not exist. When I received the award, I was teaching, had one baby, and was pregnant with another. There was no time for writing.
