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There's something very strange about associating me with that prize. I had hoped for it in a more directed way as a journalist. Somehow as a journalist you know there are Pulitzers out there and you can work hard and get one. To win it for Fiction seems unbelievable.

The paper nominated me 12 or 13 times for the Pulitzer Prize.

Pulitzers are journalist-oriented, so the publicity machine kicks in for about two days. Then, you go back to normal.

I was with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, really in the middle of nowhere, about 80 miles south of Baghdad. And it was almost midnight, and I got a computer message from the home office of the Washington Post asking me to call them. I did call them and was told that I'd won the Pulitzer Prize.

I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing.

You have the feeling that if you get a Pulitzer, you're somehow set for life.

I'm glad I won it because when I grew up the Pulitzer was the award that every composer wanted and I was like that too.

The Pulitzer is a crapshoot. Your piece has to hit a few people the right way at the right moment.

I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper.