Fiction begins with the senses, and the senses go to work in a place.

I learned to love stories by listening to them.

Novels are written, not wished into existence. You have to sit your ass in the chair or nothing gets done.

You will feel discouraged; you will lose confidence in your abilities; you will be bored with the characters–and the only way to overcome these obstacles is to write your way through them. And writing always works.

It's easier to write about a place sometimes when you've left it, when you can apply your imagination to your memory and let your emotions guide the writing about a place.

You can't possibly conduct a proper affair without a lot of deliberating, scheming, speculating, and conniving. It's a delicate balance where the excitement must equal the guilt and sex must be as bright as the future you gamble.

If you think about it, fiction is nothing more than gossip about the people you've made up.