Storytelling and elegant style don't always go hand in hand.

It's funny, but thinking back on it now, I realize that this particular point in time, as I stood there blinking in the deserted hall, was the one point at which I might have chosen to do something very much different from what I actually did. But of course I didn't see this crucial moment for what it actually was; I suppose we never do. Instead, I only yawned, and shook myself from the momentary daze that had come upon me, and went on my way down the stairs.

I'd rather write one good book than ten mediocre ones.

You are - all your experience just kind of accumulates, and the novel takes a richness of its own simply because it has the weight of all those years that one's put into it.

In short: I felt my existence was tainted, in some subtle but essential way.

Sometimes you can do all the right things and not succeed. And that's a hard lesson of reality.

As much fun as it is to read a book, writing a book is one level deeper than that.