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In America, the stories we tell ourselves and we tell each other in fiction have to do with individualism. Every person here is the center of his or her own story. And our job as people and as characters is to find our own motivations and desires, to overcome conflicts and obstacles toward defining ourselves so that we grow and change.

Most of what we say about ourselves is a wonderful piece of storytelling.

I think of myself as a storyteller, and that is it.

Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories.

No matter what writers say, most stories are about ourselves. The facts might change a little, but not much.

Novelists are in the business of constructing consciousness out of words, and that's what we all do, cradle to grave. The self is a story we tell.

I love to write what I see and what I do and what I experience, and I like to see if people can relate to that. I don't know if I am as good at making up a story in my head that has no truth to it, so that is a challenge for me.

When a story is told really well and is real, even if it's not about their own lives, people can apply it to themselves.

Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself.

I do see myself as someone who has a lot of story ideas.