I don't like the idea that I am going to come back as an ant or a sparrow if I don't get along in the great karma of life.

The situation comes first...the characters...come next...[then] begin to narrate.

I started writing seriously when I was about 12. I am always in the mood.

I have an idea of how the book will finish up, but it very rarely finishes up the way that I think it's going to.

The great thing about writing is that...you can do all these antisocial things and you get paid for them and nobody ever arrests you because they're all make-believe. Then that way if you were actually ever driven to do any of those things, the pressure's off because you'd have already written them down. It's therapy.

The bad ideas kind of just drop out of the mix. You forget about them. The good ones stick around.

Writers remember everything...especially the hurts. Strip a writer to the buff, point to the scars, and he'll tell you the story of each small one. From the big ones you get novels. A little talent is a nice thing to have if you want to be a writer, but the only real requirement is the ability to remember the story of every scar. Art consists of the persistence of memory.