And I find - I'm 63, and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any. That's the necessary part of being a writer, you better like being alone.

Rituals are comforting; rituals combat loneliness.

I'm a worst-case scenario person. I'm only interested in a story because I kind of go, like a magnet, to the worst thing that can happen.

Keep passing the open windows.

I’m not afraid, but I’m very nervous.

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.

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.