It is much easier to be flexible about where a story begins than it ever was for me to change my mind about where and how a story ended.

It is exhausting to be seventeen and not know who you are.

I'm a very old-fashioned novelist. I write 19th-century novels, where a lot of rules apply.

It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Before you can write anything, you have to notice something.

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.

It´s natural to want someone you love to do what you want, or what you think would be good for them, but you have to let everything happen to them. You can't interfere with people you love any more than you're supposed to interfere with people you don't even know. And that's hard, ..., because you often feel like interfering -you want to be the one who makes the plans.

A woman half dressed seemed to have some power, but a man was simply not as handsome as when he was naked, and not as secure as when he was clothed.