How could they say that they truly loved each other? They had simply grown up together, been children together, and the proximity of it, the closeness of it, had produced in them love s illusion. And yet - on the other hand - what was love if it wasn't this instinct she felt.

My father is a practicing criminal law attorney in the Seattle area.

When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you're deathly afraid that you're not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars.

Cities produce in me melancholy or a tension I don't need.

I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation.

Hemingway said the only way to write about a place is to leave it.

What sustains me is to be with my family and to write.