There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.

It's hard to say which of us is luckier, the ones who go through long periods when they can't write or the ones who can write pretty easily.

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 just like doing it, I like writing.

I think the difference between writing as someone and writing for them is that when you write for someone, you take on a kind of political burden or message, which I don't think we have the right to do.

You have to write fiction that mirrors the actual world, which has people of all sorts in it.

We have to give our poor, innocent, and undeserving-of-our-badness characters trouble in order to make them characters in a story.