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.

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

Some people need a huge amount of attention, and they are worthy of that attention, and they're still exhausting.

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

I was always on time, I did my work to exact specifications, I spoke when spoken to.

We have different kinds of intimacy with many, many people. I'm disappointed by well-written novels that only deal with two or three people.

When I am emperor, I will abolish private education. Private schools, private college. All of these parents with money and energy and the drive for bake sales and a desire to leave their vast fortunes to education - everybody would have to be eating out of the same educational pot.