In a conversation with novelist and short story writer Matthew Sharpe for BOMB Magazine, Gaitskill said she chose to become a writer at age 18 because she was "indignant about things—it was the typical teenage sense of 'things are wrong in the world and I must say something.'"
Nunha conversación co novelista e escritor de contos curtos Matthew Sharpe para a revista BOMB, Gaitskill dixo que elixiu converterse en escritora aos 18 anos porque estaba «indignada coas cousas, foi a típica sensación adolescente de que hai cousas malas no mundo e eu debía dicir algo».