Revision has its own peculiar pleasures and its own peculiar frustrations. The ground rules are already established; the characters already exist. You don't have to bring the characters to life, but you do have to make them more convincing.

I rarely listen to music while writing. If I don't like it, it bothers me, and if I like it, it absorbs me so much I can't write.

I certainly think its very important that writers as citizens - not necessarily as writers, but just as ordinary citizens - should talk about things that matter to them.

I think if something is worth doing, it's worth doing well. And worth thinking about it as well.

I have a reputation for being hermitlike. I'm not. I'm just obsessed with my work.

Dear though the reader might be, I'd be silly to cater to what the reader wanted.

You get your inspiration - suggestions - wherever you have to, even from your mother.