I'm very secretive. I'll write a whole novel and revise it, which might take me two years or more, and the people I know best don't know what I'm writing about.

I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person.

I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.

Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a long time how to do it.

Little children are all writers.

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.

The main thing is to explain to yourself that everybody suffers.