The lesson you have to learn as novelist is how to be collaborative, and how to say, "I don't get to dictate this."

I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.

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

My wife and I left New York when she got pregnant - we just thought it would be really hard to stay in the city.

When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.

I was also known as Frodo because I was an early adopter of 'The Lord of the Rings.

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