What I like best is telling stories. I give and take, back and forth. I listen to voices and transform them through the creative act into a story, an essay, a poem, a novel. I try to combine genres to go beyond the standard divisions and convey a complete message because I believe you can create such a synthesis with human language. There s no divide between journalism and literature.
Literature is the totality of written messages that a society produces in whichever form it chooses.
You can always say what you feel like saying, whether as a journalist or a writer. You are taught how to be brief, to summarize an interesting exercise for someone who wants to write about so many things. You re also forced to come out of your little world to face reality and dance to the tune of others. You have to get out and listen to people. But there s a downside, mainly the urgency.