As a reader I want to be present and entertained. I don't want to be taught lessons, and I don't want to be spoken down to. I want to be treated as a peer and to be made to feel welcome.
From Patrick deWitt
Looking around, I saw so many unhappy adults, people who loathed their jobs, and I didn't want to be one of them.
I come by writing dialogue fairly naturally, I've got a chatty family; I'm a bit of a voyeur, and if I'm ever in a public place, I automatically find myself listening.
I am a bit prudish, I think. It's hard for me to write about sex, and I don't really care to read about it, either.
Certain writers look down their noses at plot, and I think I might have been one of them until I tried it.
The question of likability is a bit of a puzzler for me. You know, I don't write people with likability in mind. It's more whether or not I find them compelling.
I don't know that happy people are interesting to write about - or to read about.
I don't know that I'd call myself an optimist.
My interest in words and literature is always changing. And every day of work is different, and it doesn't feel laborious in the way that, say, washing dishes did. I'm quite happy to be doing what I'm doing, and I feel very lucky.
The hardest thing in the world for a writer is to amass a readership. So many good books come out, and so many good books disappear.
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