I definitely do feel a pull toward people and places that are far from my own life.

I don't use real people for inspiration.

If writers stuck to firsthand experience, novels would be pretty limited.

I despise this weakness in myself - this endless one-sided conversation that takes the place of action.

I don't think I could write about someone I didn't feel some sympathy for.

I definitely do feel a pull toward people and places that are far from my own life.

I love research, and in fact it's liberating because you have to create your own world. No one can say "I've just got back from the 1860s, and you got it wrong." Anyway, it's fiction.