I always know exactly where my stories take place, which gives me something certain so I can use my imagination for the other stuff. I worry though, who wants to keep reading stories about Kalamazoo?

I didn’t actually figure out how to get guidance, so I just decided to go to school at University of Southern California because they sent me a glossy brochure.

The truth is I tried to write for years and I wasn’t very good.

That’s why I have to be a fiction writer, because I can’t remember what just happened or where I went last week or what movie I just watched with my husband. I’m better off just making things up.

I enjoy shooting. Around where I live, it’s something you do for entertainment once in a while, you go out and shoot targets.

It’s hard enough to figure out how to live... without worrying about what the hell’s normal.

I mostly write about the working poor. Somehow, they’re not being written about much anymore. I’m very interested in people who are in a situation that needs a little puzzling out. The thing that gets me started on a story is a person in a tough situation.

Where I live you’re not supposed to shoot a firearm within a quarter mile of a dwelling.

I’ve never shot like that in my life. That’s unholy.” Uncle Cal claimed credit for teaching her to shoot, but while Margo had felt his guidance, she had felt just as strongly the guidance of the gun itself. It held her steady, and then sadness perfected her aim.

I do different work, teaching and running around visiting universities and bookstores, and that prevents me from writing. But it’s nice to be wanted as a writer.