When an editor first explained to me the difference between direct and indirect writing, I just thought it was a stylistic choice.

There are so many different ways, most of them helpful and legal, to get yourself into a state of mind where writing is possible. It's going to be different for each person.

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.

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.

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

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

This is true in other fields, too, that a legal aid lawyer gets a whole lot less money than a Hollywood lawyer who handles the estates of celebrities. Maybe the legal aid lawyer is doing something better, though, and maybe they're happier. It's not a completely unheard of idea, but I do think we have to remind ourselves at times to look for satisfaction in other ways.