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Point of view gets me. If I can feel like a character rather than a reader, I'll read that book.

People who don't normally read make an exception for my books, possibly because they're short.

Funnily enough, I never thought of myself as being short. Being an actor has made me much more conscious of it than I would have been otherwise.

I love stories. But I don't distinguish so much between a short story and a novel. Personally, when I sit down to read a novel or a Chekhov story, I'm seeking the same thing: I'm seeking that same rich portrayal of life in words.

I've always been a little bit more of a novel reader than a short story reader. I think the first books that made me want to be a writer were novels.

People who are short, they're often portrayed as the victim.

Once I started writing novels, I understood how hard it was to write really good short stories.

I discovered you can get closer to a character's thoughts and feelings in a book than in a film.

Any fiction writer who assumes that a character is typical no doubt runs the risk of stumbling into cliche and stereotype.

I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are.