I think sometimes writers must attempt to communicate the incommunicable, because, whether they wish it or not, they're the ones to whom it falls.

Writing reminds you that you're never alone. Writing and reading is to be optimistic.

The monsters demand less of you as a writer because they're probably closer to who you are.

A writer has to stand outside the page. It's not for the writer to shed tears onto the pages for these characters. It's not for him to suffer or to laugh or to experience ecstasy or agony in the manner of the characters on the pages.

I think it's common sense to shy away from the erotic. Perhaps this grand experiment, which started with Lady Chatterley's Lover, of seeing what you can write and how you can write about sex, has reached a certain weary terminus with Fifty Shades of Grey.

A good book ... leaves you wanting to reread the book. A great book compels you to reread your own soul.

We live in a material world, not a dramatic one.