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To me, my characters are more real than most people I meet.

I treat all my characters as if they were real, and I am scrupulous about the details of their lives.

I'm not in the business of meddling with people's destinies - and yes, my characters are real people to me. They have histories and thoughts and yearnings and hurts and misgivings and pleasures that don't belong to me.

I try to talk about things I know about. But my characters are more of a combination of people or how I imagine people would feel.

My characters live inside my head for a long time before I actually start a book about them. Then, they become so real to me I talk about them at the dinner table as if they are real. Some people consider this weird. But my family understands.

My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head.

I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my character.

I'm about my characters.

Often you find the character through the things they say. How they talk about other people, how they describe themselves - which is very rare.

My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people.