I actually think it's sometimes easier for the control freaks to let loose.

I had never written about what it's like to live the life of a writer, and I had never read a book that combined talking about the life of writing and how you can do it, how you can stand it, how you can emotionally manage it, with the choices that we all make on the page.

In many cultures, women are sometimes literally kept from learning to read or from going to school.

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.

Sometimes people want to know how to write a story from the point of view of a murderer and make her sympathetic. I think the answer is that you start by having her look for her car keys, because everybody knows what it's like.

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

Writers sometimes are paid a great deal of money, but much more frequently they're not paid or are paid only a little bit.