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I find writing the darker side, writing tragedy, a lot easier than writing happiness. Happiness is just less psychologically compelling, isn't it?

I don't know that happy people are interesting to write about - or to read about.

At least in my case, a very simple, regular, happy life makes for better writing.

There's a happiness that comes from writing that I won't live without.

Happiness for me is getting to write about the most important things I know.

The real problem with happiness is neither its pursuers nor their books; it's happiness itself. Happiness is like beauty: part of its glory lies in its transience.

The thing that most interests me about writing - there are lots of things, but the thing I can't do without - is the hit of happiness a lovely sentence delivers.

It's really a lot easier to write about things that are problematic. Who wants to hear how happy you are?

I think the problem with the word 'happiness' is that it sounds fluffy. It sounds like something trivial that we shouldn't be concerned with.

You're meant to have an unhappy childhood to be a writer, but there's a lot to be said for a very happy one that just lets you get on with it.