I've written only two novels, but they're both long ones, and they each took a decade to write.

I think innocence is something that adults project upon children that's not really there.

It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially.

Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it? And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?

In order for a long piece of work to engage a novelist over an extended period of time, it has to deal with questions that you find very important, that you're trying to work out.

The job of the novelist is to invent: to embroider, to color, to embellish, to entertain, to make things up. The art of what I do lies not in research or even recollection but primarily in invention.

Children love secret club houses. They love secrecy even when there's no need for secrecy