I can be glib and truthful all at once.

Movies have to handle time very efficiently. They're about stringing scenes together in the present. Novels aren't necessarily about that.

I want that which is hilarious and that which is heartbreaking to occupy the same territory in the book because I think they very often occupy the same territory in life, much as we try to separate them.

In the end it all came down to companionship, to friendship, to sacrifice, to compromise.

I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I don't have a lot of sympathy for because I'm just going to be with them too long.

Whatever you're working on, take small bites. The task will not be overwhelming if you can reduce it to its smallest component.

Worse, I have to admit to feeling the jealousy of one crab for another that has managed to climb out of the barrel.