My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are.

I saw that my best work was my most personal work, which is odd, because my fiction is very far afield and has nothing to do with my life.

Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something.

I don't believe in fate, as in, which I - as a Catholic, I think, sort of predestination. But I certainly believe in chance.

If a person has never given writing a try, they assume that a brilliant idea is hard to come by. But really, even if it takes some digging, ideas are out there. Just open your eyes and look at the world. Writing the ideas down, it turns out, is the real trick.

It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.

Home, bed, sleep, mother--who knew more beautiful words than these?