The intricacy of plotting a thriller is akin to writing formal poetry.

You learn to exploit genre for the more important things - to my mind - like story, character, image, language.

I've never thought there was anything I could hope to get by praying for it.

I want women writers to write boldly, wildly, deeply. I want them to feel really liberated to tell the brutal truth, however they see that truth and are moved to tell it.

Writing is my obsession, my passion. My relationship with it is one of the most complex and agonizing and richly vexing that I have in my life.

If you look at the world one way, it takes from you - it's a thief of time, energy, creative mojo. But if you look at the world another way, it gives you an endless supply of motivation.

Love is a luxury. It's something that people are allowed to indulge in when they're not simply trying to survive and keep other people alive.