I hated childhood, and spent it sitting behind a book waiting for adulthood to arrive..

Something was wrong with a world where people came and went so easily..

Women were the ones that held the reins, it emerged..

Not until the final draft do I force myself to remember that I'm going to have to think about how it will affect other people..

I think it must be very hard to be one of the new young writers who are urged to put themselves forward when it may be the last thing on earth they'd….

There is no sound more peaceful than rain on the roof, if you're safe asleep in someone else's house..

I remember leaving the hospital - thinking, 'Wait, are they going to let me just walk off with him? I don't know beans about babies! I don't have a l….

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think thi….

I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for a child when another mother came up to me. Have you found work yet? she asked. Or are you still just wri….

I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly….

It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once ….

I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only ….

We stay in the house so much because I am waiting for the telephone. I seem to be back in my teens, a period I thought I would never have to endure a….

I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not just how much you love someone. Maybe what matters is who you are when you're with them..

My family can always tell when I'm well into a novel because the meals get very crummy..

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have..

She was good at talking with young people. She seemed to view them as interesting foreigners..

I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It’s greed, plain and simple. When my characters join the circus, I’m joini….

I don't want to say I hear voices; well, actually I do hear voices, but I don't think it's supernatural. I think it's just that when characters are g….

It’s like the grief has been covered over with some kind of blanket. It’s still there, but the sharpest edges are .. muffled, sort of. Then, ever now….

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.