It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.

In America you make your plans and then they happen.

I think, in general, it's better not to respond to reviews of your work.

I think that the practice of writing every day was what made me remember that writing doesn't have anything to do with publishing books. It can be totally separate and private - a comforting thought.

I've always been a little bit more of a novel reader than a short story reader. I think the first books that made me want to be a writer were novels.

I can't listen to music when I'm writing. I like music best in a car or on the train.

Most good fiction also has a character the writer seems to know more deeply than anyone can actually be known in life, but a few unusual writers can make something great without that.