Evolution is not an even process. There are surges, and there are micromoments. Certainly a career as an artist is that way.

With Instagram, you're captioning a moment. Twitter is the caption without the image. Even if it's there, the words come first.

Weirdly, the past starts to be about something else. It becomes about style in a way that it wasn't about, and I don't mean writing style, but cultural style.

The first time I voted, I voted for Eugene McCarthy and I knew he wouldn't win, but it felt so great to vote for him, to vote for the right guy - the one who wanted peace.

Having big audiences when you're on a book tour is like Valhalla if you're a person who used to sell Girl Scout cookies on the side. Because you want to give the reading that will sell the most books.

If I had been a good student and an achiever, I might have been excited by a more systematic approach to writing than what I do.