I started writing seriously when I was 18, wrote my first novel when I was 22, and I've never stopped writing since.

He might be a man without character, but she was a woman without courage. Of the two, which was worse?

I caution writers all the time to slow down and pay more attention to the work in front of them than to the end result. I don't think you write one book and get anywhere. I think you write five books and then maybe you are finally on the right path.

After my years in Hollywood, I got tired of apologizing for work that really wasn't mine to begin with.

I made the rules I figured I could be the one to break them. I thought I would write about xenophobia, a hatred of foreigners. After I stated writing the story there was not a foreigner to be had. I did not want to just stick one in there so I could get a title out of it since it seemed like cheating. I never figured out how I could get out of this dilemma so I just called it X and weaved X traits into the story.

I only get writer's block about once a day.

Having reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.