But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

The very thing that attracts you to someone can end up putting you off.

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

I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

I hated childhood, and spent it sitting behind a book waiting for adulthood to arrive.

When I'm working on something, I proceed as if no one else will ever read it.

Time, in general, has always been a central obsession of mine - what it does to people, how it can constitute a plot all on its own. So naturally, I am interested in old age.