I don't begin a novel until I have written, not just the last sentence, but usually, as a result thereof, many of the surrounding final paragraphs, so that in addition to knowing what happens, I know what the voice is.

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

If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a novel with the last sentence is a pretty plodding way to spend your life.

Newspapers are even worse for me than ice cream; headlines, and the big issues that generate the headlines, are pure fat.

How we love to love things for other people; how we love to have other people love things through our eyes.

But who can distinguish between falling in love and imagining falling in love? Even genuinely falling in love is an act of the imagination.

The arrangements that couples make in order to maintain civility in the midst of their journey to divorce are often most elaborate when the professed top priority is to protect a child.