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Writers do draw inspiration from their own lives, which, quite frankly, might be more interesting than fiction.

I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine.

When I was in high school and college, my other real focus was, actually, fiction writing. So in college, I had done all these seminars with these various writers-in-residence.

I always wanted to write fiction. Always. As far back as I can remember it's been integral to my sense of myself - everything else was always a displacement activity.

I really do believe some people are naturally novelists and some people are short story writers. For me, when I was in middle school or high school, I started with novels.

There's always a bit of fiction in everything that I write.

Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, writing takes me to another world.

Since childhood, I wrote a lot of fiction, a lot of stories, but I most loved writing essays.

Growing up, I never gave a thought to being a writer. All I ever wanted to be was a traveler and explorer. Science-fiction allowed me to go places that were otherwise inaccessible, which is why I started reading it. I was going to be a lawyer, but I got saved.