There's a lot of ignorance about how long it takes to write a novel. There's a lot of ignorance about how long a novel is in your head before you start to write it.

You don't want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason that they haven't done what I do. Most book reviewers haven't written 11 novels. Many of them haven't written one.

The characters in my novels, from the very first one, are always on some quixotic effort of attempting to control something that is uncontrollable - some element of the world that is essentially random and out of control.

Nearly everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.

My dear boy, please don’t put a label on me—don’t make me a category before you get to know me!

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

My old coach used to say that if you were in it for the match, if you were in it for the trophies, you were in it for the wrong reasons.