People perish. Books are immortal.

First comes an idea. Then, characters begin to evolve out of the landscape of that idea. And then, finally, characters dominate: plot is simply a function of what these people might do or be. Everything has to flow from their personalities; otherwise it will not be emotionally engaging, or plausible.

Suicide leaves everyone feeling guilty.

I was a political journalist; I came to writing novels through an interest in politics and power.

It implies a slight failure as a writer that you are reduced to being a ghostwriter for the money.

What is leadership, after all, but the blind choice of one route over another and the confident pretense that the decision was based on reason

A book unwritten is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and it’s halfway to being just like every other bloody book that’s ever been written.