One of the more interesting challenges I face when doing research for my novels is to trace the lives of women who are vital to the narrative and try my best to give them back their voices.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I find women as writers and as characters are operating within narrow confines. They inherit a kind of ghetto of the soul. I'm trying to enlarge the spectrum.
Women's stories have been neglected for so long - unless they were queens. Exploring the history of women is a way of redressing that imbalance.
As a male writer, women are always what men pursue, and their world is always a mystery. So I always tried to present as many views as possible on women's worlds.
Every woman must own her story; otherwise we are all part of the silence.
Literary fiction is kept alive by women. Women read more fiction, period.
I am interested in people living in the margins of society, and I do have a mission to tell the stories of women of colour in particular. I feel we've been present throughout history, but our voices have been neglected.
You know, it shouldn't just be about women as heroic figures overcoming things, it just needs to be about women in general getting the opportunity to play a multitude of roles, telling a multitude of stories - just to express human experience from a woman's perspective. I hope, someday, we can get to that point. I'm all about representation.
Women inspire me... so I enjoy women's stories and biographies. I am interested in all women.
There's not a lot of stories for women told by women in a very real, true voice.
Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.