I made a startling discovery. Time spent writing = output of work. Amazing.

The hardest piece of nonfiction I ever wrote isn't anywhere close to the easiest piece of fiction I never wrote.

The secret is to keep adding voices, adding ideas, and moving things around as you put together your life. If you’re lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day you’re alive.

There was such an incredible logic to kissing, such a metal-to-magnet pull between two people that it was a wonder that they found the strength to prevent themselves from succumbing every second. Rightfully, the world should be a whirlpool of kissing into which we sank and never found the strength to rise up again.

Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected.

I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book.

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.