I'm inspired by people who are really deliberate and careful with their lives, and people who are kind. And of course I'm inspired by people who work hard and don't complain about it. I myself work hard but sometimes, I admit, I do complain.

Some people need God and some people need science.

I've found a bit of success in my career, and I'm very relieved by it, but the success that comes after a book is published is never as happy as the feeling of writing, of knowing you've written something good, of feeling like you've had a worthwhile day in the chair. That's the best feeling I know, and as soon as writing stops making me feel that way, I'll stop doing it.

The worst thing that's ever happened to you is not the worst thing that's ever happened to anybody.

I like writing dialogue - I can hear my characters so clearly that writing dialogue often feels as much like transcribing something as it does like creating it.

I write with the idea that nobody will care about what I've written; I publish with the idea that nobody will care either. Which is why every time somebody cares enough to read a novel of mine, or respond to it - a reader, a reviewer, even my own editor - I'm a little bit amazed, and so hugely grateful.

I wish I were better at straightforward description. I feel like I'm usually overdoing it or underdoing it, and it takes a lot of tweaking to get the details right.