As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently - as if whispering it into one ear - and to know the characters intimately.

I'm a writer of faith. I was raised Catholic, and I have a deeply Catholic imagination.

Literature has done great work for feminism - writing and reading are a practice of empathy - and great literature will continue to do so.

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

I prefer a cluttered workspace.

I believe we're brutes, but then, miraculously, there are those among us who stand up against that brutishness and remind us of the goodness we're capable of.

Love is selfless, it is a weakness, a giving in, a constant falling.