For me, writing historical fiction is all about finding a balance between reading, traveling, looking, imagining, and dreaming.

Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever.

You don't say, I'm going to be a writer when I grow up - at least I didn't.

Radio - and perhaps airplanes, and then of course, the atom bomb - was the preeminent technology of the first half of the 20th century. It was how the Third Reich controlled its citizens, spread lies, and disseminated fear.

Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.

Short stories are wonderful and extremely challenging, and the joy of them, because it only takes me three or four months to write, I can take more risks with them. It's just less of your life invested.

My sister-in-law is a painter, and I'll say, how long did it take you to paint that painting. She'll say, It took me maybe three days, but it took me all my life to get the skills to paint that painting.