I have a very serious censorship office inside my head; it censors things that I could tell you that you would never forget, and I don't want to be the person to stick that in your brain.

I read very little contemporary anything.

If you're a writer, you're always working.

Good people don't spend their time being good. Good people want to spend their time mowing the lawn and playing with the dog. But bad people spend all their time being bad. It is all they think about.

I don't really write plots. I use history as the engine that drives everything.

I write what I call 'novels of consolation' for people who are bright and sophisticated.

I don't inflict horrors on readers.