I'm increasingly less interested in classic storylines and that arc that we have come to expect.

My fear was like a stray dog, roving the neighborhood of my life, looking for a new source of worry.

I didn't read about it for school. It was just for myself. I was interested in cults in general but Jonestown was the most interesting of all the cults I studied.

I'm felt I was writing about love and desire and community and belonging and grief and a whole host of other issues. But race is never far from the surface.

I was influenced growing up by everything from Harlequin romances to Fedor Dostoyevsky and Albert Camus, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and later Lydia Davis, Mary Gaitskill, bell hooks.

I definitely feel like when I write a book it's not my job to police or guide the readers. The book and the characters don't belong to me anymore. If that makes sense.

Motherhood. It was hard to get lost in anything else completely when children were 3 years old.

I'm not trying to be coy, but I think everyone notices these things like skin color but some people are more aware that they are noticing them than others, maybe. If that makes sense.

I guess the subject of race is so natural to me I never think of it as hefty. It's something I talk about and joke about and discuss with my loved ones every day of my life.

I don't like stories that are too neat and too resolved. I think resolutions can be deadening for the reader.

I think cults never stop being interesting and I'm intrigued by how we all do a tiny bit of submitting to a larger group - and how they can sneak up on you.

Our fellowship is with God when we have mutual fellowship with one another

Don't fight your thoughts. Allow them to come, but don’t cling to them. The small gaps between thoughts create the power in meditation.

The only one that believes in you, is you. Don't lean on how others see you to find belief in yourself.

I rather mistrust young men who slip into life gracefully.

I'm dating a woman now who, evidently, is unaware of it.

I only want to make music because I have a passion for it.

A good poet's made as well as born.

It's annoying when people do that so-called comedians impression of me when it's stupid nonsense.

One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.

You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.