I like playing around with the words; I love it when I feel like I've picked the exact right word to describe whatever it is I'm trying to describe

Hope doesn't mean anything. ... Action's the only thing that counts.

The deadlines are much, much longer with books. When I was a reporter, a lot of times I'd come in at 8:30 a.m., get an assignment right away, interview somebody, turn the story in by 9:30, and have the finished story in the paper that landed on my desk by noon.

It's just so much fun to make up characters, situations, and everything else about a story. I have so much freedom and flexibility to do whatever I want.

Fail big if you have to, but go down trying.

There's something about each of my books that I'm really proud of, and there's something about each of my books that I cringe over.

When writing isn't going well-then the bad thing about being a writer is that I also have the freedom and flexibility to do something badly, and no one else can fix it for me.