I quit law in 1988 to start writing, and it took me 17 years from that point to get a book contract. I guess you can say I was on the slow train.

By the end of the first decade of writing, I considered myself a confirmed failure in the eyes of the world.

You have the mainstream bourgeois life of the U.S., Europe, the "developed" world - the life of technology, education, mortgages, careers, a certain level of physical comfort - while on the other hand, several billion people on the planet exist on less than a dollar a day. That's a huge and terrible reality to get your head around.

I really had to decide why I was writing. I had no interest in going back to law; I very briefly - for about six hours - considered going to get my MBA, but in the end, I realized that the only work I really wanted to do was write.

It's amazing what happens when you stick yourself in a place and let things take their more or less natural course.

It is sort of weird being honored for the worst day of your life.

It took me 10 years to write a story that pleased me - that I could look at after it was published and not cringe.