I realized that my identity as a novelist was private. Only I knew how much of a novelist I was!

I was trying to make a novel about something no one wanted to read about into something they couldn't put down or look away from.

Every now and then, you find a book that feels like it was keyed to your DNA.

I knew it was a risk but what I was after was a novel that is about the feeling that comes with a coincidence in real life - that you feel as if something divine has intervened and has arrived with a message.

The idea of a talent that was bigger than an artist's ability to choose to use it, that would dictate the artist's life more than the artist could dictate, was interesting to me.

I realized that my identity as a novelist was private. Only I knew how much of a novelist I was!

I've been told it's hard to write about singing. I didn't realize that going into it. I might not have tried if I knew!