I tell my students that with a 200-page novel, you are going to write 100 pages that don't make the final cut. See it as an opportunity, although it took me a while to enjoy that 'lost in the woods' feeling.

I have a number of friends that try to live off their writing, and there's way more pressure for a hit or to write a certain type of book. You can't do a limited-edition short-story book with drawings unless you don't want to eat anything but ramen.

It took me nine months to write 60 pages. It was very frustrating.

Drop in a book by Salman Rushdie or another critic alongside it -- give the students an opportunity to weigh the argument,

When you write as a woman, there's this feeling there's going to be a softness.

I had final cut, and I cut my own throat.