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?

My life is a reading list.

The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life led by human beings; the second was that human beings could survive a life in hotels.

For most of my life, when I've finished the book I'm writing, there've always been as many as two or three other novels waiting to be written next. And the decision driving which one of them it should be was never based on how long it had waited or how many accumulated pages of notes I had.

Good habits are worth being fanatical about.

There's nothing as scary as the future.

You can't learn everything you need to know legally.