I don't have a lot of paper in my immediate work environment, except when I'm doing things like checking the godforsaken proofs.

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.

It wasn't for children, seventh grade. You could read the stress of even entering the building in the postures of the teachers, the security guards. Nobody could relax in such a racial and hormonal disaster area.

Writing is physical for me. I always have the sense that the words are coming out of my body, not just my mind.

Making books has always felt very connected to my bookselling experience, that of wanting to draw people's attention to things that I liked, to shape things that I liked into new shapes.

One of the things that novels have tended not to concentrate on over the centuries is the fact that people read books.

I try to write every day. I don't beat myself up about word counts, or how many hours are ticking by on the clock before I'm allowed to go and do something else. I just try to keep a hand in and work every single day, even if there are other demands or I'm on a book tour or have the flu or something, because then I keep my unconscious engaged with the book. Then I'm always a little bit writing, no matter what else I'm doing.