People always say, "Can writing be taught?" I always think, I can teach you how to write a better sentence, how to do dialogue, how to do character, but I can't teach you how to be a decent person, and I can't teach you how to have something to say.

I always used to be an inside person, and now I'm an outside person.

Anytime you write about priests or cops, they're hot-button professions.

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

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.

Just because things hadn't gone the way I had planned didn't necessarily mean they had gone wrong.

Why is it that we understand playing the cello will require work, but we attribute writing to the magic of inspiration?