I like straightforward names for my characters. When I get too symbolic with names or places, I start feeling like the characters and the story are less read, and I lose interest.

When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth.

When I am writing a story it feels as real as the life I am experiencing off the page. It's an emotional illusion, I guess.

I take mentoring very seriously and as a result I hardly get any work done during the school year.

You set up the story, but the characters start talking, and they go places that you didn't expect. You have to follow.

There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.