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

When I wrote nonfiction, my best work was the really personal stuff.

He realized now he was only just beginning to see the full extent to which it was his destiny to follow, to walk blindly into fates he could never understand. In fate there was reward, in turning over one's heart to God there was a magnificence that lay beyond description. At the moment one is sure that all is lost, look at what is gained!

One must not be shy where language is concerned.

Maybe that was the definition of life everlasting: the belief that the next generation would carry your work forward.

She sang as if she was saving the life of every person in the room.

Do you want to do this thing? Sit down and do it. Are you not writing? Keep sitting there. Does it not feel right? Keep sitting there. Think of yourself as a monk walking the path to enlightenment. Think of yourself as a high school senior wanting to be a neurosurgeon. Is it possible? Yes. Is there some shortcut? Not one I've found. Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.