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It takes a lot of energy and a lot of neurosis to write a novel. If you were really sensible, you'd do something else.

When you read a book, the neurons in your brain fire overtime, deciding what the characters are wearing, how they're standing, and what it feels like the first time they kiss. No one shows you. The words make suggestions. Your brain paints the pictures.

There isn't an aspect of book creation I don't enjoy, and there has always been a book in my life to dream about or work on.

The whole purpose of writing a book is to be understood - if other people write about you, they try to guess why you did things, or they hear things from other people.

I'm a very organised and rational and linear thinker, and you have to stop all that to write a novel.

I love to write a book out of questions; in fact, I think it's the only way my writing can operate, if there's something I don't understand.

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.

You cannot write a book unless it is totally inhabiting your imagination and you are totally engrossed with it. Which is a kind word for obsession.

Any time you can take a book a little beyond the realm of pure entertainment, I think it's a good thing. But I don't really have it on my to-do list when I write a book. It just evolves naturally during the process of immersing yourself in a subject.

Why do I write books? Why do I think? Why should I be passionate? Because things could be different, they could be made better.