My mind is like a gyre, and odd juxtapositions happen.

There's something about Vonnegut's deadpan irony that I really like. And I like Borges' puzzle structure.

Writing is solitary. You spend so much time alone and in your own mind, telling stories.

Maybe all teenagers feel like they don't fit in. I never felt like a cool kid. I remember being bullied for being Asian.

Fiction is an elemental force, which has the power to shape reality in its own image - or images, I should say - because reality, like light, exists not only as a single point or particle, but also as an array of possibilities.

When I'm writing a novel, which is what I like to write, I get up early, sit zazen, make a pot of green tea. I wear wrist cuffs to keep my wrists warm and minimize irritation from extended contact with the surface of my desk. I sit down and write.