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As a male writer, women are always what men pursue, and their world is always a mystery. So I always tried to present as many views as possible on women's worlds.

War stories, westerns, spy stories are all accepted as respectable because they are read by men. It is only women's light reading which is derided.

Women's stories have been neglected for so long - unless they were queens. Exploring the history of women is a way of redressing that imbalance.

Literary fiction is kept alive by women. Women read more fiction, period.

Women are far and away the bigger consumers of fiction than men, but men are still far and away the more reviewed, the more critically esteemed, the more respected. That can get frustrating.

I don't think I'm interested in writing women's novels anymore.

Every woman must own her story; otherwise we are all part of the silence.

I wonder if novels work for women because they give us a safe place to talk about our ish.

The imaginative leap for me of writing for women is no more difficult than the one of writing for men. I've always wanted to have women well represented in the work that I've done because I've always been around them and around the way they look at the world.

I'm not an especially male novelist, but I think men are better at writing about men, and the same is true for women. Reading Saul Bellow is a revelation, but he can't write women. There are exceptions, like Marilynne Robinson's 'Gilead,' but generally, I think it's true.