You Learn To Exploit Genre

First, You Hand Over Some Basics-overwhelming Joy, Existential Angst, A Giving-in To Desire, Etc. And Then You Promise To Withstand Talking Idly About The Weather, To Encourage Cliché, To Uphold The Virtues Of Average. You Hand Over The Need To Be Understood And, In Return, You Get A Bar Of Normal Soap. And You Can Wash In It And Be Daily Reborn To A Safe World Of Modest, Enduring Love Or, At Least, Mild, Well-mannered Bonding.

She Knows That Whispers Can Be Useful. Sometimes They Contain Real Information. But Usually They're Fairy Tales And Lies. This Is The Worst Kind Of Whisper, The Kind That Draws You In, Gives You Hope.

I Didn't Start Writing So That I Could More Deeply Know Myself. I Was Bored Of Myself, My Life, My Childhood, My Hometown. I Started Writing As A Way To Know Others, To Get Away From Myself.

I'm A Woman, But I've Been A Sexist, Too.

While I Was In College Becoming A Good Catholic I Was Also Becoming A Writer - One Haunted By Catholicism.