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.

I write very quickly; I rewrite very slowly. It takes me nearly as long to rewrite a book as it does to get the first draft.

I have learned that the consequences of our past actions are always interesting; I have learned to view the present with a forward-looking eye.

A truly happy woman drives some men and almost every other woman absolutely crazy

When Jack Burns needed to hold his mother's hand, his fingers could see in the dark.

O God — please give him back! I shall keep asking You.

I never know when I finish the novel I am writing which will be the next novel out of the station.