In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.

Listen to the criticisms and preferences of your trusted "first readers".

At the moment, I'm toying with a new idea for a book, but fully engaged with writing screenplays, so the book idea - which needs empty space in my head - is barely formed yet.

The unfolding of a story is both as exciting and as difficult for each and every novel I've written, regardless of time and place.

When you've finished a piece of work you've had a kind of love affair with it.

Forget the boring old dictum, 'Write about what you know.' Instead, seek out an unknown yet knowable area of experience that's going to enhance your understanding of the world and write about that.

Life is not a dress rehearsal.