It's difficult to tell the truth about how a book begins. The truth, as far as it can be presented to other people, is either wholly banal or too intimate.

I lost many literary battles the day I read 'Their Eyes Were Watching God.' I had to concede that occasionally aphorisms have their power. I had to give up the idea that Keats had a monopoly on the lyrical.

Sometimes you get a flash of what you look like to other people.

Your mid-thirties is a good time because you know a fair amount, you have some self-control.

First rule of writing: When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

It's not in good taste to have talking ghosts in a grown-up novel.

Without the balancing context of everyday life, all you have is the news, and news by its nature is generally bad.