A writer must take risks, defy the odds, be a bit obsessed and a little mad.

I don't think I began to be a professional writer until I learned my weaknesses and what I couldn't do. This forced me to compensate.

There is very little that is accidental in my work. I believe in serendipity for developments of plot, but the actual writing is arrived at by very hard work. The joy of writing doesn't mean that you don't get the backaches and headaches and the days when it's not coming.

When you get the ideas, that's a thrill; when you're writing the book and it's corning out well, that's a thrill; when you finish it and other people read it, that's a thrill. There are going to be reviews, of course; not everyone's going to love it. You feel sort of naked and vulnerable in a way. That's just a minor part of the process, really. If you can't take that part, you shouldn't be in the business. But there are so many joys to writing.

That's what Archie did - built a house nobody could anticipate a need for, except himself, a house that was invisible to everyone else.

I sometimes get tired because I can seldom read a book for pleasure. I'm like the play reviewer who happens to go to a play on an off day and can't help but view it critically.

I have lived a thousand lives lost within the pages of a book.