I've never really understood that whole thing of writers avoiding other writers' novels while they're working on their own.

I love sentences. I love characters. But most of all, perhaps, I love to work on plot, and that may be where my natural gifts lie, if I have any. I like to think hard about plots in TV shows and films.

I never really have blank page syndrome. I don't get blocked. I have a plan for my novel before I start which, although incomplete, probably contains enough material for several novels by a quieter kind of writer. And I try to get my arms around that material and see where it takes me.

I've never really understood that whole thing of writers avoiding other writers' novels while they're working on their own.

It seems to me that the basic plot of all historical novels is a romance swept aside by history.

Plot is tremendously important to me: I can't stand books where nothing happens, and I can't imagine ever writing a novel without at least one murder.

When I'm writing new material, I never have any trouble coming up with ideas.