Quote

I never wanted to be mainstream as a writer, but look at what's happened.

For a writer, you definitely do not want to be in the mainstream. You want to be on the edge because that's where the vantage point is. That's where you can see.

Historical novels are hard to do for the general public for commercial writers like myself.

I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to have.

I'm completely indifferent to what genre I read provided that I feel sympathy with how a writer perceives being alive in the world.

Writers, as they gain success, feel like outsiders because writers don't come together in real groups.

It seems natural to me that as a writer, you should have some kind of, you know, there should be some kind of projection that you actually have influenced people who are closest to you.

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

I'm not a great reader of historical fiction; it's not my favourite genre.

We've all faced the charge that our novels are history lite, and to some extent, that's true. Yet for some, historical fiction is a way into reading history proper.