When I was writing my first novel, I smoked cigarettes. And when I think about what it was like to smoke, I remember exactly the feeling of sitting in front of my big old computer in that little room where I wrote my first novel.

Our minds simply don't function in some sort of narrative chronology. I think that one of the great gifts of writing fiction is being able to think about that.

My son is now fourteen, and from the moment he was born, I understood that forevermore my heart would be walking around outside my body.

There is no end to the promotion. There is no end to the possibilities. You can continue to promote a book for years, literally.

Everything you need to know about life can be learned from a genuine and ongoing attempt to write

The truth is in the present moment.

Part of my spiritual work is learning to live with the knowledge that we can't protect our loved ones from pain and heartache.