Self-pity does not appreciate pedantry.

As a writer, you have to realize that people want to like the characters, so you have to be careful to keep them involved.

I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.

The people with the strong, brave exteriors are just as weak and vulnerable as the rest of us. And of course they never admit to their childish practices, their moments of weakness or absurdity, and then the rest of us think that's how it should be.

We think the world is ours forever, but we are little more than squatters.

I am easily persuaded to continue to have fun.

Everybody has friends they dislike; people who they have slipped into relationships with, people they would not have chosen had they been more cautious, more circumspect.