I think that fiction has a part to play in urging us, as a species, toward compassion.

I'm a control freak. I'm defensive. And I'm an egomaniac. That's true about me.

The main thing a childhood in the Church did for me, I think, was set up the universe as a moral system. Once you've seen it that way, it always seems that way.

I don't feel like I have the intelligence to really inhabit a consistently high level of prose.

I do find the values in A Christmas Carol significant. It is important not to be mean and stingy and not to give up love for money.

All along, my mantra was: Don't write unless it contributes to the emotion, and do anything you do in service of the emotion only.

When you do something that's going to speak to people, it's going to be because you're really allowing all of yourself to the table in an accepting way.