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

I am very interested in place, and the influences of place on characters.

I'm not really a plot writer - I'm more interested in the characters and sort of small events that propel the story forward.

Places are extremely important when writing a long story because place shapes a character.

I always tend to write about outsiders. And what's been fun for me is, as I travel around and visit schools, is that other kids that feel the same way relate to some of my characters, and so I hope in some way that's helping them when they want to read about somebody that they can relate to.

I think my experience as an actor helps me to write anything. It certainly helped me to write 'August Osage County.' It helps me to write any play that I'm working on because I think one of the things I do well is write good roles for actors.

Whichever character I'm using and wherever I am in my mind dictates what kind of story I'm going to tell.

Wherever a writer grew up, they're obviously influenced by that area, and I'm sure their characters are pulled from those experiences.

I tend to write about towns because that's what I remember best. You can put a boundary on the number of characters you insert into a small town. I tend to create a lot of characters, so this is a sort of restraint on the character building I do for a novel.