I had my bully, and it was excruciating. Not only the bully, but the intimidation I felt.

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

And he did see--that life was rotten, that there were no heroes, really, and that you couldn't trust anybody, not even yourself.

The rewriting is always crucial to what I do; whenever I do a scene, I always tell myself that this isn't final and that I can do it again, better. The pacing is probably from experience. I've always liked gradual disclosure. I keep thinking of my rubber-band theory. You have a rubber band that you keep pulling and pulling and pulling, and just at the moment of snapping you release it and start another chapter and start pulling again.

A terrific sadness swept over Jerry. As if somebody had died. The way he felt standing in the cemetry that day they buried his mother. And nothing you could do about it.

I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to get something down on paper.

We often think that tragedies happen because of great earthquakes in people's lives. I think they sometimes occur because of small things that become obsessive to a particular person.