Writing is my way of expressing - and thereby eliminating - all the various ways we can be wrong-headed.

I like books that don't give you an easy ride. I like the feeling of discomfort. The sense of being implicated.

I know to argue against our online lives seems like the argument of the grumpy, old Luddite novelist, but I really always try to make the argument from the perspective of personal pleasure.

The young people have a phrase for this now, which is "slay in your lane." That's a very important principle of writing. You have to work out what it is you can't do, obscure it, and focus on what works.

It's a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word.

Most of the cruelty in the world is just misplaced energy.

When I see my friends engaging in a Twitter war for an afternoon, I think that would destroy me for a month.