Success is about persistence. You can only afford to be persistent in something you deeply enjoy.

Obviously, the genes of women are flawed. They are poorly designed creatures who do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get along peaceably and fruitfully.

I think I'm good at metaphors and descriptions. Plot doesn't come naturally to me, so I work really hard at it.

Honestly, if anyone reads my work, they're doing me a favor, so they get to use whatever words they want to describe it. I can't control that, nor if they like the work, so best not to even try.

Words are an imperfect medium for explaining.

I have an interest in the outsider.

In fiction you're not often writing about the typical; you are interested in outliers, the points of interest. Part of it comes from feeling I was the only Asian or person of colour... another part comes from my personality: I'm an introvert, and my usual survival mode in a large group is to stand by a wall and watch everybody.

As soon as I could write, I was writing stories.

Rebecca Solnit is a clarion voice of reason.

I'm fascinated by the ways people under repressive regimes still manage to share information - and joy.

Taste is idiosyncratic, so I don't love everything people recommend me, and I don't love everything my friends love.

I have a bad habit of reading more than one book simultaneously!

One of the most fun things for me, as a writer, is when readers ask questions like, 'Oh, I noticed that you have a lot of water and baptism imagery in your book. Did you do that on purpose?'

In my own work, when I start off writing a scene, I don't know which physical details are going to turn out to be meaningful. But, inevitably, certain images will stand out - you start to decide which ones are important as you go.

One of the things I like so much about 'Goodnight Moon' is the way it leaves room for ambiguity.

For the first three years of his life, my son insisted on hearing 'Goodnight Moon' before bedtime. Like most babies, he was not a good sleeper by disposition - but reading seemed to help, and this book specifically became part of his whole wind-down ritual.

I wanted to write a book about people who have the best intentions and think - really, truly think - that they're doing the right thing. And then they realize that when those ideals come knocking at their windowsill, a lot of times they will suddenly disavow those ideals.

We have to figure out why we see the world in different ways and then how are we going to adjust so that we can at least still understand each other.

I'm really interested in how we understand each other - and whether we can understand each other.

What you look for as a reader is somebody who is going to take you and say, 'C'mon. Come into the story. I'm going to show you what there is to see.' The guide who is going to tell you, 'Pay attention over there,' or, 'Do you remember that other thing? Now watch!'

I think one of the reasons that I like fiction versus nonfiction is that I myself can kind of disappear from the story.

I'm very much a people pleaser, and the first book had such a devoted and loving following.

I really wanted to be a poet - until I realized that I really didn't have what it took to be a poet.

I loved growing up in Shaker Heights, and I really miss it.