In the end you're not made or broken by prizes. Your relationship is with your readers, not a prize, and you just have to keep on honoring that.

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

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.

I had some bad jobs when I was young. Writing is not one of them. If you're fortunate enough to reach my age, to still be writing, you have to be grateful, and I am. I've been lucky. For many years, all I've done is writing, and it's all I've ever wanted to do.

Literary prizes serve a purpose if they allow for discussion of books.

I think writing should be about change.

It's a sin for a writer to go looking for camels to put into his or her pages. I only want details that are the story.