I love thrillers. I would even read certain science fiction, although I haven't been a devotee for many years.

When you are writing a character, what the character says is obviously crucial. But what the character doesn't say is absolutely as important as his words.

I enjoy going to campuses and reading and doing a class or teaching and then running away and not having to grade papers.

What I try to do is read stuff that won't deal with the dangerous dark things I hope I am writing about.

Good art is a form of prayer. It's a way to say what is not sayable.

Stephen King has the exact ability that Charles Dickens had. To get to his readers in spite of or despite anything the reviews say.

If a writer is honest, if what is at stake for him can seem to matter to his readers, then his work may be read. But a writer will work anyway, as I do, and as I have, in part to explore this terra incognita, this dangerous ground I seem to need to risk.