A logic proof is: you get a starting point and an ending point, and you have to get there through all these different steps and tautologies. I approach novel writing that way. When I get to the end I have to go back and connect everything.

I think female-female relationships interest me so much more because they're so encoded. There is kind of a psychic element that happens within groups of women.

I obviously read and adore traditional fiction. I teach traditional fiction; I also teach all kinds of not-so-traditional fiction.

I spend far too much time on eBay buying lamps and upholstery remnants.

The spread of communications technologies - social media, TV news channels - aggravates societal divisions and discord. All that online snarling is making us jittery.

It's one of the fundamental principles of the stock market: When interest rates go up, stocks go down. And along with financial companies and cyclicals, technology companies - with their sky-high price-to-earnings multiples - should be among the biggest losers in an environment of rising rates.

The film industry is moving towards digital technology.

I miss my pre-Internet brain, but that doesn't help anything. We can only go forward.