My book is traditional. It runs counter to the post-modern spirit.

What some people interpret as brooding melancholy is serenity. I don't feel required to grasp all the time.

I was aware that there is an expectation that writers inevitably falter at this stage, that they fail to live up to the promise of their first successful book, that the next book never pleases the way the prior one did. It simply increased my sense of being challenged.

I became paralyzed as an artist with writer's block.

The strange thing was, he wanted to like everyone. He just couldn't find a way to do it.

I was born in Washington State and have lived here for 42 plus years.

Well, I think it’s extraordinarily fun to write, and I look forward to it every day, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s easy. There’s a difference between the two. It’s fun in the way all worthwhile things are fun – there’s difficulty attached to it. I think that a writer has to accept a certain amount of frustration. It’s inherent in the task, and you have to simply persevere. It’s part of the definition of the work.