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But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.

Having reached the halfway mark in the alphabet, my prime focus is on writing each new book as well as I can.

With each book you write you have to learn how to write that book - so every time, you have to start all over again.

I always want to write something better than the last book.

I really strive to bring something new to each book. I don't want to write the same book over and over again.

When I start writing a novel, I have no sense of direction, no idea, really nothing.

I knew I wanted to write novels, but I could not finish what I started. The closer I got, the more ways I'd find to screw it up.

I write in a very peculiar way. I think about a book for 25 or 30 years in a kind of inchoate way, and at one point or another, I realize the book is ready to be written. I usually have a character, a first line, and general idea of what the book is going to be about.

I've started lots of books, but it's hard for me to finish them.

I've summarized dozens of books in my literary career; it's become rather second nature.