There's no reason you should write any novel quickly.

In this world,” Franny once observed, “just as you’re trying to think of yourself as memorable, there is always someone who forgets that that they have met you.

I'm not at all contemporary, not even modern, and the fact that I would be so quaintly attracted to that wrestling rule makes me, I suppose, seem all the more old-fashioned. I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.

The main character and the most important character are not always the same person - you have to know the difference.

A personal injustice is stronger motivation than any instinct for philanthropy.

Sometimes that's a year, sometimes it's 18 months, where all I'm doing is taking notes. I'm reconstructing the story from the back to the front so that I know where the front is.

There's no reason you shouldn't, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly.