People get careless when they're feeling safe.

You write one book and you're ready for fame and fortune. I don't know that people are spending the time and attention on learning how to write-which takes years. Everybody sees the success stories.

Sometimes I claim I write because I put in an application at Sears and they've never called back.

Insecure people have a special sensitivity for anything that finally confirms their own low opinion of themselves.

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.

Age plays cruel tricks on the human face; all our repressed feelings become visible on the surface, where they harden like a mask.

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