If what a person wants is his life, he tends to be quiet about wanting anything else. Once the life begins to seem secure, one feels the freedom to complain.

I think, if you want to grow a novelist, for that person to have a lot of boring time trying to entertain themselves is very important.

The tricky thing about being a writer, or about being any kind of artist, is that in addition to making art you also have to make a living.

I am not mature enough as a reader to enjoy a book in which I hate all the people.

You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are one person.

Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words.

Anytime you write about priests or cops, they're hot-button professions.