I try not to think too much or be too impatient, and let the back of my brain do its mysterious work.

While writing, writers are living inside a character or characters, and when the book ekes into the world, writers are living inside the reader. That's more than connecting.

Childhood is such a delicate tissue; what they had done this morning could snag somewhere in the little ones, make a dull, small pain that will circle back again and again, and hurt them in small ways for the rest of their lives.

I don't believe that fiction is dead. I know there are some people who believe that it's an outdated art form, and that to express truth today you need to work in different forms, to write books where it's perhaps not clear what's fiction and what's memoir. I have nothing against those books and love many of them very much. But we have enough space for everyone, traditional realists and hybrid writers, and experimental writers all.

If there's a black cat that crosses the street in my path, I will turn around and walk 20 minutes out of my way to not cross it.

When I write new worlds, I work in layers, building and throwing out, and building anew.

I've always relied on producing more material than I need. With each of my published novels I've written around four times the amount of material that's ended up in the book.