Why is it we can never love the people we ought to?

Being in love, you know... it's not like having a canary, in a cage. When you lose one sweetheart, you can't just go out and get another to replace her.

I wouldnt mind being a fly on the wall in a few Victorian parlours.

Respect your characters, even the ­minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters' stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist's.

I never expected my books to do even as well as they have. I still feel grateful for it, every single day.

Your twisting is done--you have the last thread of my heart. I wonder: when the thread grows slack, will you feel it?

I knew Id always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, Well, Id rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one.