I envy those writers who outline their novels, who know where they're going. But I find writing is a process of discovery.

I don't want to have my life fall apart for my work.

Most all of the writers I admired when I was in my teens and twenties died young. Fitzgerald lived the longest. He was 44. Dylan Thomas was 39. And then once you're approaching 40, you suddenly think, "Well, maybe I would like to live longer than Fitzgerald or Thomas."

I don't think I've left a trail of weeping women in my wake. I mean, the number of serious relationships I've had has not been into double digits.

The most interesting things that happen in my books are usually the things that arise spontaneously, the things that surprise me.

I love to imagine inside the head of a woman.

I'd like to have the kind of house someday where a carousel horse wouldn't be out of place in the living room.