Memory is everywhere, in the ways we think of ourselves and tell our stories. There are certain kinds of people who have more of a sense of who they … - Rachel Khong

I wanted the book to inhabit quieter moments, and to be about these smaller interactions that reflect the way life often is. A tidy, definitive ending wouldn’t have been right for this book or the people in it; I wanted to leave the suggestion that life goes on, for all of these characters, even after the last page.

Nonfiction requires logic and more careful thinking; sometimes I have to remind myself to be less self-conscious when I’m writing fiction. You have to turn off the part of your brain that tells you things don’t make sense or aren’t any good. Whereas that voice can be useful in nonfiction writing.

People are so obsessed over this question of what is and isn’t autobiography—and I think the question is especially popular with people who don’t read much fiction, because a novel seems so mysterious: “Where did this story come from?…