I concentrate on the lives of individuals whom the reader comes to know and feel with intimately.

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.

Once one habit peels away the others follow it. You have to hold on, or the next thing you'll find yourself parading down the street in your nightdress. Habit is everything.

Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away.

As individuals, we are shaped by story from the time of birth; we are formed by what we are told by our parents, our teachers, our intimates.

The poets whom I knew then were all men and all seemed dauntingly sure of themselves - although I am sure that really they were as uncertain as I was.

I concentrate on the lives of individuals whom the reader comes to know and feel with intimately.