It took me nine months to write 60 pages. It was very frustrating

The rich are different than you and me: they have more money and they have more power.

I think Peter Dickinson is hands down the best stylist as a writer and the most interesting storyteller in my genre.

I realised I'd never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book

I believe in the dull lie - make your story boring enough and no one will question it.

It's hard for me to believe that just my words on the page are enough. I ought to be out physically keeping abortion safe and legal, restoring the Fourth Amendment, getting clean water back into Kentucky since the Bush Administration has allowed strip miners to fill it all up with slag. The list is endless. Bring it down. Make it small. Make it one thing that you can do. It's very hard for me to remember that.

I went to college at the University of Kansas, where I got a degree in political science.