I've fallen in love in my life a few times. It's the most exciting part of being alive - that I've experienced, anyway.
— Patrick deWitt
When you're 8 years old, and you've become subconsciously familiar with the layout and design of Black Sparrow books, and you know the difference between Miles Davis and John Coltrane, something is bound to stick.
The theme of luck comes up a lot. It's something I thought about before, why some people are lucky and some people aren't lucky. It seems like some people you meet can sort of cultivate luck, and I've always been fascinated by that.
One of the nice things about writing is you can take essentially painful things in your life and turn them into something that might be useful, or at least entertaining, to somebody else.
Some deeper part of me wants to write comical dialogue; I'd be foolish to not follow that impulse. Now I recognize that if there's energy to a section of work, you go where the energy is. It's a living thing, and you just follow it.
I wrote for so many years in a bubble, the way everyone does, and there were large swaths of time where you think you're doing this for nothing. An audience is crucial, a back and forth with the invisible readers.
The hardest thing in the world for a writer is to amass a readership. So many good books come out, and so many good books disappear.
I don't know that happy people are interesting to write about - or to read about.
Certain writers look down their noses at plot, and I think I might have been one of them until I tried it.
I know a lot of people who use the Internet really wisely. It enriches their lives in some way.
The nice thing about writing at home is that it's almost as though I'm doing it already. I get out of bed thinking of my work, and I don't have to go anywhere to do it.
If you're not riddled with doubt, you've probably done something wrong.
When your protagonist bores you, you're in trouble.
I was intentionally curbing the impulse to be funny and hiding the ability. I wrote any number of very serious attempts at poems, short stories, novels - horrible. At a certain point, I recognized that it was fun to write dialogue that had a degree of lightness and humor.
The question about my Canadianness comes up a lot, and I'm never quite sure what to say about it. I've carved a life out for myself in Oregon, and it feels like home, not because it's the States but because that's where my friends are and where my son is.
My interest in words and literature is always changing. And every day of work is different, and it doesn't feel laborious in the way that, say, washing dishes did. I'm quite happy to be doing what I'm doing, and I feel very lucky.
The question of likability is a bit of a puzzler for me. You know, I don't write people with likability in mind. It's more whether or not I find them compelling.
Looking around, I saw so many unhappy adults, people who loathed their jobs, and I didn't want to be one of them.
More and more, I find myself turning away from everything relating to contemporary society. I don't know how healthy it is, but I am creating a very private bubble that I live in.
It's healthy to have interests besides books.
All of my close friends are emotional train wrecks. This is what makes our lives interesting - constantly doubting ourselves, worrying, wondering if we've made a mistake. Could we have done better? Are we good people? Are we bad people?
I'm either enjoying myself or I'm not. And if I'm not enjoying myself, something's gone terribly wrong.
I have a paranoia that 'Ablutions' is the best thing I'll ever do.
I am a homebody, something that lends itself to my profession.
I don't know that I'd call myself an optimist.
I come by writing dialogue fairly naturally, I've got a chatty family; I'm a bit of a voyeur, and if I'm ever in a public place, I automatically find myself listening.
I am a bit prudish, I think. It's hard for me to write about sex, and I don't really care to read about it, either.
