I tend to think of myself as a highly emotional writer. It's all coming out of the deepest feelings, out of dreams, out of the unconscious.

Someday I would change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.

I've had the odd good luck of starting slowly and building gradually, something few writers are allowed anymore. As a result I've seen each of my books called the breakthrough. And each was, in its way.

The key to mostly anything is pretending your first time isn't.

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

...Don't rupture another's illusion unless you're positive the alternative you offer is more worthwhile than that from which you're wrenching them. Interrogate your solipsism: Does it offer any better a home than the delusions you're reaching to shatter?

I want what we all want," said Carl. "To move certain parts of the interior of myself into the exterior world, to see if they can be embraced.