I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.

I think I was born with the impression that what happened in books was much more reasonable, and interesting, and real, in some ways, than what happened in life.

...it's closeness that does you in. Never get too close to people, son.

When you have children, you're obligated to live.

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

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.

Bravest thing about people is how they go on loving mortal beings after finding out there's such a thing as dying.