I think it's dangerous to think you know what you're writing. I usually don't know, and usually I just discover it in the course of writing. I envy those writers who can outline a beginning, a middle, and end. Fitzgerald supposedly did it. John Irving does. Bret Easton Ellis does. But for me, the writing itself is the process of discovery. I can't see all that far ahead.
I think, when I'm writing, I have a more clinical view than I do when I'm reading. I like pretending to be God and basically determining the fate of my characters. But as a reader, I'm a sucker. I'm very sentimental. I get upset when people that I like die. And yet I have killed off characters in my books quite heartlessly, and sometimes found that readers were very upset by it.
The only sensible approach is not to take it too seriously. What counts is the writing.
I envy those writers who outline their novels, who know where they're going. But I find writing is a process of discovery.
A creative writing program is only as good as its teachers, and I was fortunate in having two great writers as mentors.
Most of the people I write about have been ambitious outlanders who have been attracted to New York from other parts of the world.
