When I write characters, I need to hear their voice. As soon as I get them speaking, and I feel how they use language, I understand who they are and what they want.
I want what I write to be deeply engaging and strange and true.
I always think the novelist should go to the culture's dark places and poke around. Pose a lot of hard questions.
The writer has to take risks and go somewhere full of mystery and possibility for the novel to deepen over the years it takes to write it.
My teaching forces me to articulate what I think works in a piece of fiction and how I think it works. All of that gives me energy as a writer.
