I love a large cast of characters. That's the way life is: it's flooded with people and we keep them all straight.

I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.

You can’t pick up and leave everything behind because there is too much sadness in the world and not enough places to go.

Part of it is living in Tennessee. I'm so out of the loop. And as a person, I'm out of the loop. I'm oblivious by nature.

If what we want to do is promote reading and writing and publishing and making sure this is a business that keeps going - because it is a business! It's not just an art - then we have to take responsibility. I get sort of crazy and frothy when I think about this. It really matters.

I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.

It's always better to have too much to read than not enough.