I used to describe myself as a comic novelist, but my concerns seem to have darkened over the past few years.

The interesting part about the writing process is that you can never see all the way to the end, not if something is happening over the course of a year and a half, or two years.

He made me think of all the books I hadn't read, and all the ones I'd read but hadn't fully understood.

It's not the cheating. It's the hunger for an alternative. The refusal to accept unhappiness.

It's like the human race has been programmed for misery.

Nothing beats novel writing because it's complete expression of you. You just control everything. Not even a movie director has that level of control.

I know very few writers who outline fully before they start. It just doesn't seem possible to do, because so many things don't come out until you're absolutely knee-deep in the world.