I'm kind of interested in learning to learn and grow and challenge myself. I think I've been very fortunate in that my books are pretty different from one novel to the next. There's a lot of things that are similar but in terms of tone and the scale and how they interact with history and just the different styles as well.

What I've learned is that there is nothing in this life that does not fail to disappoint us, even our own deaths.

When she cries, it is quiet, tearless, almost completely imperceptible: one more unheard prayer.

I was getting close to thirty and was trying on the idea of becoming more mature. I was reading more. I had gone out and bought a lot of shirts.

The most important things in your life are almost always impossible to predict.

We have fun acting like this, acting like we are incredibly offended. Really, we are just bored to tears with everything.

Sex scenes in books are always like first person, from this male perspective and just about how awesome he is. It feels like such a fantasy.