I'm very comfortable writing..

Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon..

My novels are very much the same, as I think many people's novels are. No matter how hard I try to do otherwise, the books always wind up being "a gr….

Sometimes if there's a book you really want to read, you have to write it yourself..

Praise and criticism seem to me to operate exactly on the same level. If you get a great review, it's really thrilling for about ten minutes. If you ….

Everybody believes in chance..

I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing..

There was no one clear point of loss. It happened over and over again in a thousand small ways and the only truth there was to learn was that there w….

I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book..

I read books I hate all the time, and I don't mention them or talk about them..

If what a person wants is his life, he tends to be quiet about wanting anything else. Once the life begins to seem secure, one feels the freedom to c….

Everyone knows everything eventually..

I can write for any magazine now, in any voice. I can do it in two hours, I could do it in my sleep, it's like writing a grocery list..

From my table inside I watch the glamorous women outside who are lunching on Spa Cobb salads without blue cheese or dressing. The man with the bread ….

Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. … It is a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are t….

I don't believe in fate, as in, which I - as a Catholic, I think, sort of predestination. But I certainly believe in chance..

I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it..

Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find..

Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined..

It's always better to have too much to read than not enough..

I have been accused of being a Pollyanna, but I think there are plenty of people dealing with the darker side of human nature, and if I am going to w….