I'm not much interested in my own self when I write. I'm interested in what I observe out there, what's going on around me.

I have a second-degree black belt in Okinawan kobudo weapons training.

I thought that you had to learn to write by yourself and if you couldn't do it, then you were out of luck.

I was unhappy and I couldn't figure out what was the matter. And he told me to go take a writing course. And I didn't even know that one could learn to write in writing courses.

My donkeys are Jack and Don Quixote. They're very smart, very cautious. Much of what people consider stubbornness in donkeys is actually cautiousness.

I always felt a weird obligation to be adventurous.

Eighty percent of all novels are bought by women, or so I've heard.