It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.

I didn't really choose to write; I more or less fell into it.

I'm too shy for personal appearances, and I've found out that anytime I talk about my writing, I can't do any writing for many weeks afterward.

I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It's greed, plain and simple.

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

Everything was leveled, there were no extremes of joy or sorrow any more but only habit, routine, ancient family names and rites and customs, slow careful old people moving cautiously around furniture that had sat in the same positions for fifty years.