We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think.

For some people, it's very easy to be spontaneous and they can pour out the most wonderful stuff. But it's really hard to exert control over it, to think, 'Well, this could be different. This could go in the opposite order, there could be more here and less there.' For other people, it's much easier to have rules and a methodology, but much harder to let loose and allow their feelings to come pouring out on the page. They're more shy or they're just more distant from their emotions. I think everybody starts with one or the other.

I don't really like to tell people to get out drugs.

I've been astonished how often, when I convince a writer to tell a story more straightforwardly and to tell it more simply and directly, it turns out that this author is great and the story is wonderful.

Somehow we have to detach from feeling as though money is a quick and easy standard by which we can gauge how well we're doing.

There seems to be a tremendous desire among many people now to know authors and how they work, to know what's autobiographical and what isn't.

We're always inventing, even if we're making someone who's fairly close to ourselves.