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I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write.

Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories.

My goal is to write one book of fiction, and that's all I want to do. It takes so much time, and I don't really have enough time. But I admire writers so much.

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'd always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world.

Writers don't write writing, they write reading. When I was a kid, I read four or five books a week. And that is how I became a writer.

I remember all the way back in high school thinking about writing books. And, in fact, I've written a lot of stories. I've got dozens of stories I've written that no one's ever seen.

Writing a book is very personal. It's a very personal relationship. A book will start with something as simple as two men talking about work. That gets the fire going. Sustaining that fire is the hard work. It takes attention and empathy to hone the characters.

I write for the love of writing. If I never published another book, I would still be writing stories.

Everyone wants to write a book. Very few people are able to do it.