“This is the best time of my life. It’s only given to me—especially as a writer. I was freelance for twenty years, writing for The New York Times, interviewing for The Paris Review, etc. But never a book and a book seemed like what made someone “a writer.” And you have to do it young. The publishing industry and media are obsessed with young writers for no good reason. But I believed all that and swore I’d have a book by the time I was 50. It seemed the universe heard because I wrote Pathological in five months, got my dream agent and a handsome book deal in three months, and it was published two weeks before my 50th birthday.” -