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My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.

I just write the books that I think I would want to read.

I tell beginning readers to read a lot and write a lot. If you want to write a book, find a subject that's really worth the time and effort you'll put in.

I was always writing the books that I wanted to write, books that demanded to be written at the time. But, like most writers, you start off feeling your way.

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.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it.

I've always been a writer. I hope to continue to write books until I can't anymore.

Writing a book for me, I expect, is very similar to the experience of reading the book for my readers.

I've written a lot of books now; I've been published for over 30 years. I hope with every book I learn something new, and with every new novel I try to improve the process of writing.