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I like the idea of young readers using my stories as a sort of moral gym, where they can flex and develop their newly developed moral muscle.

I try to write stories that are thrilling and full of mystery and funny all at the same time, stories that raise moral questions but come up with very few moral answers, stories that emotionally touch readers through the characters.

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

I like for there to be a moral, for the character to have gotten something out of the experience.

The telling of stories creates the real world.

The idea of telling a story in reverse destabilises your ordinary moral reactions. That's one of the points of art - to challenge your preconceptions.

I just want to be part of great stories that are told and for them to be relevant.

All stories interest me, and some haunt me until I end up writing them. Certain themes keep coming up: justice, loyalty, violence, death, political and social issues, freedom.

For novelists, sharply drawn moral conflicts are often useful, and even human and personal disasters can be seen as material.