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A lot of times characters are combinations of people I come across in life. I people-watch a lot.

All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story.

I love to start characters in a place where you think you know them. We can make all kinds of assumptions about them and think they have no redeeming qualities, but like everyone, they're complex.

I try to talk about things I know about. But my characters are more of a combination of people or how I imagine people would feel.

When I work on a novel, I usually have one character and a setting in mind.

I get very involved in my characters. Sometimes I have a very hard time separating my characters from my life.

As a novelist, I tend to know significantly more about my characters than I do about my friends.

Characters are so important to a story that they actually decide where the story is going. When I write, I know my characters. I know how things are going to end, and I know some important incidents along the way.

People are always thinking that I'm the main character in my books, but each one has been different, and sometimes they've been men.

I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my character.