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

Never use 'submit' as a verb for sending work to magazine or book publishers; say 'offer,' and never, ever submit. Keep your knees unbent. Be brave.

It's hard to read real fiction. It takes time. It takes a sustained attention.

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 don't think I want to write a third book. But the more people talk to me about it, the more I think maybe I do.

I know important literary writers who can't get published.

In a way, I see my fiction as having moved in that direction - and the characters as dealing simultaneously with their personal history and with the present in which they are trying to make their way. So that the books are simultaneously about public and interior events. And I am having a great time getting confused and crazed writing about them.