The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page.

I do not believe in evil- I believe that we are human and fallible, that we things and spoil them in an ordinary way.

When I'm working, I'm not so much disciplined as obsessive. I have this feeling that I need to clear everything away and get this down.

Write whatever way you like. Fiction is made of words on a page; reality is made of something else. It doesn't matter how "real" your story is, or how "made up": what matters is its necessity.

I think writers worry that you might not exist in some strange way if you're not writing.

My kids are supposed to live till they are one hundred. You don't have to have a perfect house or a perfect relationship with your child or a perfect child, and you yourself do not have to be perfect.

I love the characters not knowing everything and the reader knowing more than them. There's more mischief in that and more room for seriousness, too.