about the author

The Book Is My Point

"I just held up the book and I said, 'This is my point.  The book is my point.'  It's my artistic expression I'm trying to communicate to you.  I don't know what I'm communicating, I'm making art.  I want to turn you on somehow and I hope you communicate back with me.  That's it.  That's my point.  I'm not trying to push an agenda on anybody.  That's for politics.  That's for essays.  That's for standing on a soap box."

Write What You Know

"If people think that fiction is limited to being able to speak only from your own experiences, that's a very small role for fiction.  You can speak from a writer's point of view or from a reader's point of view, but however you slice it, it's a smaller world if you subscribe to that belief. As a writer, trying to write stories, I can't believe that's true.  I would not be able to get up and work if I believed that was true."

A Writer Is a World

All Good Novelists

Cast Off the Fear

"Cast off the fear.  I was terrified about writing stories about where I came from because I was embarrassed.  Truly great writers are not afraid to bare their souls.  Sometimes you may feel like: 'I shouldn't have put that in there, I don't want people to think it's about me or look at me differently.'  Toss those thoughts aside.  That's a mental block.  Don't think about it.  Just do it.  As long as you write from a place of purity, and it comes from your heart, you can't go wrong."