I really look at my childhood as being one giant rusty tuna can that I continue to recycle in many different shapes.
I never listen to music when I write.
I love to both give and receive very old books.
I like, though, that people have a hunger to connect with other people. They're desperate to know that you're not lying to them or misleading them.
I knew that if I wrote a new book every six months or every year, if I continued to read great books, eventually I would write something worthy of publication. I understood I might be in my forties or my fifties or even my sixties, but I felt confident that it would happen.
I can't tell you how much I love Target and Costco, that kind of culture, because it's something I never felt a part of. I've always felt like a tourist because I have never fit in anywhere.
But my favorite band is Curbside Life, out of Chicago.
As a writer, you can't allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents or publishers. You absolutely must plow forward.
Because I've lived in one room my entire life, working at the same table that you use to pay bills at and eat at. It's going to be nice to have actual space.
I was in advertising for years. That was cushy, you know? It's pretty cushy in a lot of ways, but I hated it.
Reading takes solitude and it takes focus.