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.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

People are either attracted to the unseemly or disapproving of it, or both; yet we try to sound superior to the unseemly by pretending to be amused by it or indifferent to it.

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

The concept of writing a novel and not knowing where it's going - I don't know how to do that. Novels are plot- and character-driven, so if I don't know what becomes of people, how can I know where it should begin?

What a phrase that is: 'that explains everything!' I know better than to think anything 'explains everything' today.

We often need to lose sight of our priorities in order to see them.