Novelists get to direct the perfect films. We get to cast every part. We dress the set exactly as we wish.

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

Discomfort is very much part of my master plan.

I plan less and less. It's a great benefit of writing lots, that you get good at holding long narratives in your head like a virtual space.

I don't want to indulge myself in the luxury of writing beautiful paragraphs just for the sake of making beautiful writing. That doesn't interest me. I want everything to be essential.

I had always wanted to be a writer who confused genre boundaries and who was read in multiple contexts.

Nerds are just deep, and neurotic, fans. Needy fans. We're all nerds, on one subject or another.