I used to think, 'I'm going to write.' I knew that from quite early on, but I also thought, 'Maybe I'll be an explorer or a spy,' and it all came from books.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I had thought of writing, actually, and that later on I'd be a novelist.
I always know what I'm going to write before I sit down.
People are always coming up to me with my books and saying, 'You write these things I think but I could never say.'
One day I was talking about what I was going to do next, and just found myself announcing it: 'I'm going to write a book about my father.'
Like lots of people who say, 'I'm going to write a novel,' it's actually more comfortable to think I could write a novel than to discover that you can't.
When I write, I get glimpses into future novels.
A lot of writing is thinking.
Growing up, I never gave a thought to being a writer. All I ever wanted to be was a traveler and explorer. Science-fiction allowed me to go places that were otherwise inaccessible, which is why I started reading it. I was going to be a lawyer, but I got saved.
I never know what I'm going to write next, and when I think I do I usually turn out to be mistaken.
I wasn't sitting around years ago thinking, 'I really want to write a novel.'