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Fiction demands structures and recognizable shapes. Big surprises only draw attention to the writer's hand.

I think writers like to see how people bring their words to life, and it's always surprising. Always, no matter what, whether it's good or bad, it's always surprising because a whole human being is coming to that piece of writing.

In the finest critics one hears the full cry of the human. They tell one why it matters to read.

When the narrator says, 'This is a story without surprises,' most of the time, this is not what happens.

Most writers spend their lives standing a little apart from the crowd, watching and listening and hoping to catch that tiny hint of despair, that sliver of malice, that makes them think, 'Aha, here is the story.'

I really like it when you can step outside of what's come before and find a surprise for the reader and find a surprise for yourself.

There's a moment in every book when the book turns and it surprises me.

Writers sometimes ruin a book by adding a lighthearted mood at the wrong moment.

Characters die all the time. At times, they die amongst a reader's tears, and at others, amongst the applause, and some, still, in quiet satisfaction.