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.

Try Jesus, you won't regret it, a billboard read.

I consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again.

He wished he had inhabited more of his life, used it better, filled it fuller.

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 suspect that marriage is like parenthood: every last one of us is an amateur at it.

I'll write maybe one long paragraph describing the events, then a page or two breaking the events into chapters, and then reams of pages delving into my characters. After that, I'm ready to begin