Everybody is a True Believer. Everybody has a little nugget they're convinced of that is the opposite of the nugget on the other side. And they're convinced it's fact.

Listen to advice. You don't know how many writer's conferences I've taught at where at least half the audience fights all the conventions of the field.

Nobody in real life ever takes me seriously.

I've been a teacher at the college level, in composition mostly, and I've been an editor on magazines.

I don't make my own schedule - it's constructed around my sons' school schedules.

I tend to come up with people more than situations - most of my books start with a character.

People always seemed to know half of history, and to get it confused with the other half.