I'm not sure I would have ever decided to try to write when I was forty-five if I hadn't already gotten that degree [in English].

I'm always doubting my work, even when people are kind enough to say good things. I still have a hard time believing I've written some books, let alone that they've actually done pretty well.

When I turned fifty, I decided to quit the mill and go to graduate school.

I was always a big reader, even when everything was bad and miserable.

Look, girls don't care how many push-ups you can do. They just want to get high and wear flowers in their hair. Maybe steal a car.

I've always been a bit of a pessimist in regard to mankind.

I really have no idea what the French think of my characters, or why The Devil All the Time did so well there.