Novels usually evolve out of 'character.' Characters generate stories, and the shape of a novel is entirely imagined but should have an aesthetic coherence.

Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.

I wrote a novel called "Blonde," which is about Norma Jean Baker, who becomes Marilyn Monroe, which I called a fictitious biography. That uses the material as if it were myth - that Marilyn Monroe is like this mythical figure in our culture.

People might be surprised to know how much I throw away. For every page I publish, I throw 10 pages away.

To claim - to claim repeatedly - that you are innocent of what it is claimed by others that you have done, or might have done, or are in some quarters strongly suspected of having done, is never enough unless others, numerous others, will say it for you.

I have beliefs, of course, like everyone-but I don't always believe in them.

Literature, art, like civilization itself, are only accidents.