As a friend of mine, herself a writer, says, 'People who spend the most meaningful hours of their lives in the exclusive company of imaginary people are apt to be a little strange'

I think persistence in the face of adversity is an essential part of a writer’s job description. If you don’t care enough about it to avoid being easily disheartened that way, you really should be doing something else.

I've always essentially been a New Yorker.

When you get older, keeping the private stuff private seems less important.

I never know what I'm going to write next, and when I think I do I usually turn out to be mistaken.

It's the easiest thing in the world to know God's will. You just wait and see what happens, and that's it.

As my late mother famously observed, the one thing to be said for growing old is that every year there are a few more things I don’t have to give a rat’s ass about.