There are writers who draw immediate attention to the fact that it's fiction. And I like some of that, but it doesn't really have the power.

I think fiction is about small ambition, small failed ambition.

You have to be smart enough to see the world for yourself and honest. The whole book-publicity thing is not really honest, at base.

Writing a book is like an unknown abyss, every time. Every book is different. Contrary to what unpublished writers think, it's horrible to have a book out.

Nothing is as important as a likable narrator. Nothing holds a story together better.

I've written five books, a book every three years. I'm fairly lazy and it doesn't take that much...people who are not lazy are Isaac Asimov.

You're never so alive as after you thought you were going to die.