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

I read 'The Great Gatsby' in high school and was hypnotized by the beauty of the sentences and moved by the story about the irrevocability of lost love.

Maybe that's what we look for in the people we love, the spark of unhappiness we think we know how to extinguish.

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.

It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence.

My novels are certainly more exciting than my own life.

A screenwriter heard me read from my novel 'The Wishbones' when it was still in progress and mentioned me to some producers in Hollywood. They called, and I told them I had a novel in my drawer about a high school election that goes haywire. They asked to take a look, and my life changed pretty dramatically as a result.