Novels are almost like music or poetry - they just come to me in simple sentences, whereas I think my pieces get more and more complex ever since I've started using a computer.

When I'm working on a book, I constantly retype my own sentences. Every day I go back to page one and just retype what I have. It gets me into a rhythm.

Another thing I need to do, when I'm near the end of the book, is sleep in the same room with it...Somehow the book doesn't leave you when you're asleep right next to it.

Writing nonfiction is more like sculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing.

He was an outsider who lived by his ability to manipulate the inside.

California: The west coast of Iowa.

I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be